gobelin
\ɡɔ.blɛ̃\
The verdict
“gobelin” is uncommon French (frequency #51,498 among 2,617 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,498
- frequency rank, French
- 2,617
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Esprit follet, lutin.
Corpus desk
Index FR-gobelin · gobelin · French
gobelin · rank #51,498 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,498
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,617
- PHOTO-FINISH goals
Nearest frequency peer: goals (-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 « gobelin »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- ghali
ghali
48,506 corpus weight
- gillis
gillis
48,505 corpus weight
- goals
goals
48,504 corpus weight
- gobelin
gobelin
48,503 corpus weight
- gones
gones
48,502 corpus weight
- gourdin
gourdin
48,500 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « gobelin » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gobelin |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡɔ.blɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #51,498 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « gobelin » en français
Rare enough to double-check
gobelin is uncommon French at frequency #51,498 among 2,617 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡɔ.blɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Esprit follet, lutin.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for gobelin in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is gobelin, spelled G-O-B-E-L-I-N.
Definition
- 1Esprit follet, lutin.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gobelin appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
M. Mabeuf s’était mis à feuilleter et à lire, à l’aide de ses lunettes, deux livres qui le passionnaient, et même, chose plus grave à son âge, le préoccupaient […]. Le premier de ces livres était le fameux traité du président Delancre, De l’inconstance des démons, l’autre était l’in-quarto de Mutor de la Rubaudière, Sur les diables de Vauvert et les gobel…
Des êtres surnaturels, répondit le magister Hermod d’une voix qui imposait. Pourquoi ne seraient-ce pas des esprits, des babeaux, des gobelins, peut-être même quelques-unes de ces dangereuses lamies, qui se présentent sous la forme de belles femmes…
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 "gobelin"?
What does "gobelin" mean?
How do you pronounce "gobelin"?
What language does "gobelin" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gobelin", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).