hip

^((h aspiré))\ip\

/^((h aspiré))\ip\/ adj

The verdict

“hip” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #8,554) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#8,554
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - À la mode, branché.

Corpus desk

Index FR-hip · hip · French

hip · rank #8,554 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,554
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH han

Nearest frequency peer: han (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « hip »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « hip » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

hip vs hp
67% similar
hip vs Hs
0% similar
hip vs hm
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for hip
PropertyValue
Headwordhip
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA^((h aspiré))\ip\
Letters3
Frequency rank#8,554
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « hip »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).hipse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « han » (#8,553), « honneurs » (#8,555), « géniale » (#8,552). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « hip » est au #8,554. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for hip is neighbouring look-alikes ("hp", "Hs", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ip\. Frequency #8,554 among 1,969 “H” headwords. Gloss: "À la mode, branché.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for hip in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hp", "Hs", "hm", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is hip, spelled H-I-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    À la mode, branché.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. À cette époque, on était « hip » où on n’était rien. Il fallait rester branché, et un chapeau bien choisi est la meilleure façon de commencer.

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 "hip"?
"hip" is spelled H-I-P. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h aspiré))\ip\.
What does "hip" mean?
As an adjective, "hip" means: À la mode, branché.
What words are commonly confused with "hip"?
"hip" is commonly confused with "hp", "Hs", "hm". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "hip"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hip" is ^((h aspiré))\ip\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hip" come from?
"hip" 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 "hip", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list