gneiss
\ɡnɛs\
The verdict
“gneiss” is uncommon French (frequency #57,980 among 2,617 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,980
- frequency rank, French
- 2,617
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Roche métamorphique à grain grossier, composée d’une alternance de plages claires (quartz, feldspath) et foncées (mica, amphibole).
Corpus desk
Index FR-gneiss · gneiss · French
gneiss · rank #57,980 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #57,980
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,617
- PHOTO-FINISH globuleux
Nearest frequency peer: globuleux (-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 « gneiss »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Genji
Genji
42,024 corpus weight
- Givors
Givors
42,023 corpus weight
- globuleux
globuleux
42,022 corpus weight
- gneiss
gneiss
42,021 corpus weight
- goat
goat
42,020 corpus weight
- gogos
gogos
42,019 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « gneiss » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gneiss |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡnɛs\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #57,980 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « gneiss » en français
Rare enough to double-check
gneiss is uncommon French at frequency #57,980 among 2,617 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡnɛs\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Roche métamorphique à grain grossier, composée d’une alternance de plages claires (quartz, feldspath) et foncées (mica, amphibole).".
Zero misspellings are on record for gneiss in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No documented word history exists 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 gneiss, spelled G-N-E-I-S-S.
Definition
- 1Roche métamorphique à grain grossier, composée d’une alternance de plages claires (quartz, feldspath) et foncées (mica, amphibole).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gneiss appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Au centre même du massif du Tanargue, au hameau des Chambons, les gneiss sont verticaux et courent 88° en moyenne. Dans les gorges du Chassezac, entre Chasseradès et Puylaurent, ils sont orientés en moyenne 120° et plongent de 15 à 30° seulement vers le sud-ouest.
Le massif dioritique de Lesterps, que la route de Bussière-Boffy recoupe transversalement sur 3 kilomètres, est en disposition synclinale : les gneiss plongent sous la diorite aussi bien à l'Ouest, près de Lesterps, que sur la bordure est.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gneiss", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).