gneiss
\ɡnɛs\
The verdict
“gneiss” is uncommon French (frequency #57,980 among 194,371 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,980
- frequency rank, French
- 194,371
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Roche métamorphique à grain grossier, composée d’une alternance de plages claires (quartz, feldspath) et foncées (mica, amphibole).
| 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) |
Where “gneiss” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
gneiss is uncommon French at frequency #57,980 among 194,371 “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).
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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Using “gneiss”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is G-N-E-I-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɡnɛs\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.