gerbille

\ʒɛʁ.bij\

/\ʒɛʁ.bij\/ noun

The verdict

“gerbille” is uncommon French (frequency #91,733 among 2,617 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,733
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit rongeur appartenant à la sous-famille des Gerbilles, se distinguant facilement des souris et des rats par sa queue poilue.

Corpus desk

Index FR-gerbille · gerbille · French

gerbille · rank #91,733 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,733
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH genouillères

Nearest frequency peer: genouillères (-2 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 « gerbille »

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 « gerbille » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for gerbille
PropertyValue
Headwordgerbille
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʒɛʁ.bij\
Letters8
Frequency rank#91,733
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « gerbille » en français

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « genouillères » (#91,731), « ghazal » (#91,735), « geno » (#91,730). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « gerbille » est au #91,733. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

gerbille is uncommon French at frequency #91,733 among 2,617 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʒɛʁ.bij\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Petit rongeur appartenant à la sous-famille des Gerbilles, se distinguant facilement des souris et des rats par sa queue poilue.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for gerbille, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is gerbille, spelled G-E-R-B-I-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit rongeur appartenant à la sous-famille des Gerbilles, se distinguant facilement des souris et des rats par sa queue poilue.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. La gerbille est docile et facile à apprivoiser.

This word in other languages

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 "gerbille"?
"gerbille" is spelled G-E-R-B-I-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʒɛʁ.bij\.
What does "gerbille" mean?
As a noun, "gerbille" means: Petit rongeur appartenant à la sous-famille des Gerbilles, se distinguant facilement des souris et des rats par sa queue poilue.
How do you pronounce "gerbille"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "gerbille" is \ʒɛʁ.bij\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "gerbille" come from?
"gerbille" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "gerbille", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list