harfang
^((h aspiré))\aʁ.fɑ̃\
The verdict
“harfang” is uncommon French (frequency #87,710 among 1,969 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,710
- frequency rank, French
- 1,969
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom employé soit de façon générique (i.e. harfang des neiges), ou comme nom spécifique (comme dans chouette harfang), désignant un genre de grand-duc dépourvu d’aigrettes (la seule espèce de ce nom...
Corpus desk
Index FR-harfang · harfang · French
harfang · rank #87,710 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,710
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,969
- PHOTO-FINISH Hanane
Nearest frequency peer: Hanane (-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 « harfang »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- haltère
haltère
12,293 corpus weight
- Hanane
Hanane
12,292 corpus weight
- harfang
harfang
12,291 corpus weight
- harki
harki
12,290 corpus weight
- harmonia
harmonia
12,289 corpus weight
- healing
healing
12,287 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « harfang » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | harfang |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | ^((h aspiré))\aʁ.fɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #87,710 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « harfang » en français
Rare enough to double-check
harfang is uncommon French at frequency #87,710 among 1,969 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed ^((h aspiré))\aʁ.fɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
harfang has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is harfang, spelled H-A-R-F-A-N-G.
Definition
- 1Nom employé soit de façon générique (i.e. harfang des neiges), ou comme nom spécifique (comme dans chouette harfang), désignant un genre de grand-duc dépourvu d’aigrettes (la seule espèce de ce nom étant Bubo scandiacus) de la famille des strigidés, de plumage d’un blanc pur tacheté ou strié de marques plus sombres en plus ou moins d’étendue selon l’âge de l’oiseau ou la saison. → voir harfang des neiges
- 2Harfang des neiges.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how harfang appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il avait vu cet être étrange [un mineur] rôdant dans la mine, toujours accompagné d’un énorme harfang, sorte de chouette monstrueuse…
… qu’y at-il par delà ces îles de glaçons fracassés, qu’y a-t-il par delà la mer ultime et le dernier harfang, quel nord plus puissant que le nord leur dicte ce cri plus lointain que le cri ?...
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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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "harfang", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).