harlequin

\aʁ.lə.kɛ̃\

/\aʁ.lə.kɛ̃\/ noun

The verdict

“harlequin” is uncommon French (frequency #60,851 among 1,969 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,851
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords

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

Corpus desk

Index FR-harlequin · harlequin · French

harlequin · rank #60,851 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,851
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH harcelées

Nearest frequency peer: harcelées (-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 « harlequin »

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 « harlequin » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for harlequin
PropertyValue
Headwordharlequin
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\aʁ.lə.kɛ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#60,851
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « harlequin » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.harlequintombe 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: « harcelées » (#60,850), « hatch » (#60,852), « handicapant » (#60,849). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « harlequin » est au #60,851. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

harlequin is uncommon French at frequency #60,851 among 1,969 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \aʁ.lə.kɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Variante de arlequin.".

harlequin doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is harlequin, spelled H-A-R-L-E-Q-U-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Variante de arlequin.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Tandis que l’autre s’évertue à faire ici le harlequin.

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 "harlequin"?
"harlequin" is spelled H-A-R-L-E-Q-U-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \aʁ.lə.kɛ̃\.
What does "harlequin" mean?
As a noun, "harlequin" means: Variante de arlequin.
How do you pronounce "harlequin"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "harlequin" is \aʁ.lə.kɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "harlequin" come from?
"harlequin" 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 "harlequin", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list