handball
^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃d.bal\
The verdict
“handball” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #11,782 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,782
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Sport collectif d’origine allemande où deux équipes de sept joueurs s’affrontent avec un ballon sur un terrain rectangulaire séparé en deux camps. Le jeu consiste à envoyer le ballon dans le but ad...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | handball |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃d.bal\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #11,782 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “handball” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for handball is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃d.bal\. Corpus data places it at rank #11,782 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Sport collectif d’origine allemande où deux équipes de sept joueurs s’affrontent avec un ballon sur un terrain rectangulaire séparé en deux camps. Le jeu consiste à envoyer le ballon dans le but ad...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for handball, with forms such as "ahndball", "hadnball", and "hanbdall". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is handball, spelled H-A-N-D-B-A-L-L.
Definition
- 1Sport collectif d’origine allemande où deux équipes de sept joueurs s’affrontent avec un ballon sur un terrain rectangulaire séparé en deux camps. Le jeu consiste à envoyer le ballon dans le but adverse afin de marquer des points, en se servant des mains et du haut du corps pour intercepter le ballon, le lancer, faire des passes, etc.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahndball,hadnball,hanbdall,handabll,handbal,handbball,handblal,handdball,hanndball,hhandball,hnadball
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of handball - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “handball”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is H-A-N-D-B-A-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃d.bal\ (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
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.