halt

\halt\

/\halt\/ particle

The verdict

“halt” is uncommon French (frequency #88,701 among 1,969 “H” headwords), classed as a particle. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#88,701
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Particule modale qui souligne normalité, coutume ou constance, souvent avec un air de résignation.

Corpus desk

Index FR-halt · halt · French

halt · rank #88,701 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #88,701
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH halos

Nearest frequency peer: halos (-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 « halt »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for halt
PropertyValue
Headwordhalt
LanguageFrench
Part of speechParticle
IPA\halt\
Letters4
Frequency rank#88,701
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « halt » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).halttombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « halos » (#88,700), « hambourgeois » (#88,702), « hallo » (#88,699). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « halt » est au #88,701. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

halt is uncommon French at frequency #88,701 among 1,969 “H” headwords, classed as aparticle, transcribed \halt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Particule modale qui souligne normalité, coutume ou constance, souvent avec un air de résignation.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for halt, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 halt, spelled H-A-L-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Particule modale qui souligne normalité, coutume ou constance, souvent avec un air de résignation.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how halt appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Es sollte ein lustiger Sonntag auf der Wiesn werden, die Studentin Luisa T. (Name geändert) und ihr Freund hatten sich mit zwei Bekannten im Augustiner-Festzelt verabredet. (...) Gegen Abend setzten sich drei Herren zu ihnen an den Tisch, "man hat sich halt zugeprostet", erzählt Luisa T. vor Gericht, "sonst nichts".

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 "halt"?
"halt" is spelled H-A-L-T. The IPA pronunciation is \halt\.
What does "halt" mean?
As a particle, "halt" means: Particule modale qui souligne normalité, coutume ou constance, souvent avec un air de résignation.
How do you pronounce "halt"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "halt" is \halt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "halt" come from?
"halt" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "halt", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list