hareng
^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɑ̃\
The verdict
“hareng” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #36,877 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #36,877
- frequency rank, French
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Poisson de la famille des clupéidés d’à peu près 25 cm de long, au corps fin et pourvu d’une petite bouche, au corps bleuté sur le dessus et argenté en-dessous, qui ne se pêche que dans l’océan et ...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hareng |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | ^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #36,877 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hareng” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for hareng is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as ^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #36,877 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for hareng, with forms such as "ahreng", "haerng", and "haregn". 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 also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "haven", "hargne", "having", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is hareng, spelled H-A-R-E-N-G.
Definition
- 1Poisson de la famille des clupéidés d’à peu près 25 cm de long, au corps fin et pourvu d’une petite bouche, au corps bleuté sur le dessus et argenté en-dessous, qui ne se pêche que dans l’océan et en certaines saisons de l’année, où il arrive par bancs.
- 2Proxénète.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahreng,haerng,haregn,harengg,harenng,harneg,harreng,hhareng,hraeng
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hareng - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "hareng"?
What does "hareng" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "hareng"?
How do you pronounce "hareng"?
What language does "hareng" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “hareng”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is H-A-R-E-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as ^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “haven” - see the side-by-side comparison. hareng vs haven
- 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.