hail

Name: hail, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

\heɪl\

/\heɪl\/ noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“hail” is uncommon French (frequency #59,329 among 1,969 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,329
frequency rank, French: 1,969
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Grêle.

Corpus desk

Index FR-hail · hail · French

hail · rank #59,329 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

FREQ-RARE #59,329
LEN-MID 4 letters
VOW-2 2 vowels
CONFUS-0 No pairs
VAR-0 0 variants
BOOK-MID 1,969
PHOTO-FINISH Gévaudan

Nearest frequency peer: Gévaudan (-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.

génocidaires

40,675
géodésique

40,674
Gévaudan

40,673
hail

40,672
handi

40,671
hardie

40,670

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « hail » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Key facts for hail
Property	Value
Headword	hail
Language	French
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	\heɪl\
Letters	4
Frequency rank	#59,329
Misspellings tracked	0
Confusable pairs	0
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « hail » en français

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

#59,329

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Gévaudan » (#59,328), « handi » (#59,330), « géodésique » (#59,327). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « hail » est au #59,329. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hail is uncommon French at frequency #59,329 among 1,969 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \heɪl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Grêle.".

hail has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 hail, spelled H-A-I-L.

Definition

1
Grêle.

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 "hail"?

"hail" is spelled H-A-I-L. The IPA pronunciation is \heɪl\.

What does "hail" mean?

As a noun, "hail" means: Grêle.

How do you pronounce "hail"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hail" is \heɪl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "hail" come from?

"hail" 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 "hail", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

frou#59,305 fray#59,302 Ifsi#59,362 maja#59,419