FSB

\ɛf.ɛs.be\

/\ɛf.ɛs.be\/ name

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“FSB” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #45,626) as a proper noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#45,626
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Service de renseignement de la Russie chargé des affaires de sécurité intérieure, successeur du service de la sécurité intérieure du KGB.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fsb · FSB · French

FSB · rank #45,626 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #45,626
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH fugace

Nearest frequency peer: fugace (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « FSB »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « FSB » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

FSB vs ft
0% similar
FSB vs fun
0% similar
FSB vs fût
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for FSB
PropertyValue
HeadwordFSB
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\ɛf.ɛs.be\
Letters3
Frequency rank#45,626
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « FSB »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.FSBse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « fugace » (#45,627), « frozen » (#45,624), « funiculaire » (#45,628). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « FSB » est au #45,626. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for FSB is neighbouring look-alikes ("ft", "fun", …), not just typos; it is aproper noun pronounced \ɛf.ɛs.be\. Frequency #45,626 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Gloss: "Service de renseignement de la Russie chargé des affaires de sécurité intérieure, successeur du service de la sécurité intérieure du KGB.".

FSB doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ft", "fun", "fût", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is FSB, spelled F-S-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    Service de renseignement de la Russie chargé des affaires de sécurité intérieure, successeur du service de la sécurité intérieure du KGB.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how FSB appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Les services de renseignement allemands pensent qu'un homme retrouvé mort le mois dernier près de l'ambassade de Russie à Berlin était un agent du FSB posté dans la capitale allemande sous couverture diplomatique, rapporte vendredi le magazine Der Spiegel.
  2. Signe que les autorités russes sont sur les dents en Crimée, les services de sécurité russes (FSB) ont annoncé jeudi l'arrestation de deux habitants de Sébastopol soupçonnés d'avoir transmis à l'Ukraine des informations sur des cibles militaires.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "FSB"?
"FSB" is spelled F-S-B. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛf.ɛs.be\.
What does "FSB" mean?
As a proper noun, "FSB" means: Service de renseignement de la Russie chargé des affaires de sécurité intérieure, successeur du service de la sécurité intérieure du KGB.
What words are commonly confused with "FSB"?
"FSB" is commonly confused with "ft", "fun", "fût". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "FSB"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "FSB" is \ɛf.ɛs.be\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "FSB" come from?
"FSB" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "FSB", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ink#45,673jal#45,690Drs#45,556KTM#45,700

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list