genette

\ʒə.nɛt\

/\ʒə.nɛt\/ noun

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

The verdict

“genette” is uncommon French (frequency #74,035 among 2,617 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#74,035
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Espèce de viverridé proche des civettes, surtout d’Afrique, et dont la peau s’emploie en fourrures.

Corpus desk

Index FR-genette · genette · French

genette · rank #74,035 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #74,035
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH gendres

Nearest frequency peer: gendres (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « genette »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « genette » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for genette
PropertyValue
Headwordgenette
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʒə.nɛt\
Letters7
Frequency rank#74,035
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « genette » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.genettetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « gendres » (#74,034), « ginkgo » (#74,037), « gnangnan » (#74,038). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « genette » est au #74,035. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

genette is uncommon French at frequency #74,035 among 2,617 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʒə.nɛt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for genette, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is genette, spelled G-E-N-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Espèce de viverridé proche des civettes, surtout d’Afrique, et dont la peau s’emploie en fourrures.
  2. 2
    Sorte de mors dont la gourmette a la forme d’un anneau.
  3. 3
    Ordre militaire fondé par Charles-Martel.
  4. 4
    Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries. Elle est souvent confondue avec la martre (si présentée sans ses tâches) et utilisée pour construire des armes parlantes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La genette qui est un animal de l'Espagne, de l'Asie mineure, etc. et qui ne se trouve que dans l'Ancien continent, ne doit pas être indiquée par le nom de coati, qui est américain, comme on le trouve dans M. Klein.
  2. Il y en a [des femmes] de hautes avec des jambes de course et des têtes de genettes.

This word in other languages

genet(English)gineta(Español)Ginsterkatze(Deutsch)

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 "genette"?
"genette" is spelled G-E-N-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʒə.nɛt\.
What does "genette" mean?
As a noun, "genette" means: Espèce de viverridé proche des civettes, surtout d’Afrique, et dont la peau s’emploie en fourrures.
How do you pronounce "genette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "genette" is \ʒə.nɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "genette" come from?
"genette" 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 "genette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

gendres#74,034Grammys#74,043Gardois#74,026Gallium#74,022

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list