grain de sable
\ɡʁɛ̃ də sabl\
The verdict
“grain de sable” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Particule de petite taille provenant de la désagrégation des roches.
Corpus desk
Index FR-grain-de-sable · grain de sable · French
grain de sable · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | grain de sable |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡʁɛ̃ də sabl\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « grain de sable » en français
Rare enough to double-check
grain de sable is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡʁɛ̃ də sabl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
grain de sable has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is grain de sable, spelled G-R-A-I-N- -D-E- -S-A-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Particule de petite taille provenant de la désagrégation des roches.
- 2Problème ou dégât causé par le coté abrasif d’un grain de sable dans un mécanisme ou un engrenage.
- 3Élément imprévu qui entrave la réalisation d’un projet.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how grain de sable appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Sur la plage, les grains de sable, projetés par le vent, nous piquaient le visage.
Mais si tu vas mettre ton grain de sable chez les autres, nous sommes sûrs d'arriver les premiers!
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.