helicopter
\ˈhɛlɪˌkɑptɜɹ\
The verdict
“helicopter” is uncommon French (frequency #80,278 among 109,908 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,278
- frequency rank, French
- 109,908
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Hélicoptère.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | helicopter |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ˈhɛlɪˌkɑptɜɹ\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #80,278 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “helicopter” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
helicopter is uncommon French at frequency #80,278 among 109,908 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ˈhɛlɪˌkɑptɜɹ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Hélicoptère.".
Zero misspellings are on record for helicopter in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is helicopter, spelled H-E-L-I-C-O-P-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1Hélicoptère.
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 “helicopter”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is H-E-L-I-C-O-P-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ˈhɛlɪˌkɑptɜɹ\ (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
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.