hobo

^((h aspiré))\ɔ.bo\

/^((h aspiré))\ɔ.bo\/ noun

The verdict

“hobo” is uncommon French (frequency #91,786 among 1,969 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,786
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Vagabond

Corpus desk

Index FR-hobo · hobo · French

hobo · rank #91,786 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,786
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH hirsutes

Nearest frequency peer: hirsutes (-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 « hobo »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for hobo
PropertyValue
Headwordhobo
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA^((h aspiré))\ɔ.bo\
Letters4
Frequency rank#91,786
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « hobo » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).hobotombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « hirsutes » (#91,785), « hinterland » (#91,784), « hindouiste » (#91,783). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « hobo » est au #91,786. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hobo is uncommon French at frequency #91,786 among 1,969 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed ^((h aspiré))\ɔ.bo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Vagabond".

Zero misspellings are on record for hobo in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

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 hobo, spelled H-O-B-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Vagabond

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dans la distance vaporeuse, Jody McBrown pouvait passer pour un hobo, un vagabond, s'intéressant à l'harmonie de la grande habitation blanche au fronton soutenu par des colonnes majestueuses.
  2. À une époque où le Québec rejette les carcans sociaux, religieux et culturels du XIX et de la première moitié du XXe siècle, « la condition hermaphrodite du protagoniste du Journal d'un hobo, ce il/elle, est l'indication … d'une fissure de l'identité , d'une convocation polymorphe , d'une mise en cause des expressions viriles du discours nationaliste . »

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 "hobo"?
"hobo" is spelled H-O-B-O. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h aspiré))\ɔ.bo\.
What does "hobo" mean?
As a noun, "hobo" means: Vagabond
How do you pronounce "hobo"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hobo" is ^((h aspiré))\ɔ.bo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hobo" come from?
"hobo" 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 "hobo", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list