imbiber
\ɛ̃.bi.be\
The verdict
“imbiber” is uncommon French (frequency #79,395 among 3,561 “I” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,395
- frequency rank, French
- 3,561
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pénétrer d’eau ou de tout autre liquide.
Corpus desk
Index FR-imbiber · imbiber · French
imbiber · rank #79,395 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,395
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,561
- PHOTO-FINISH illusionnistes
Nearest frequency peer: illusionnistes (-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 « imbiber »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- ictère
ictère
20,611 corpus weight
- ignorera
ignorera
20,610 corpus weight
- illusionnis…
illusionnistes
20,607 corpus weight
- imbiber
imbiber
20,606 corpus weight
- immole
immole
20,604 corpus weight
- immortal
immortal
20,603 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « imbiber » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | imbiber |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ɛ̃.bi.be\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #79,395 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « imbiber » en français
Rare enough to double-check
imbiber is uncommon French at frequency #79,395 among 3,561 “I” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ɛ̃.bi.be\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
imbiber doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is imbiber, spelled I-M-B-I-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1Pénétrer d’eau ou de tout autre liquide.
- 2Devenir imbibé d’eau ou d'un autre liquide.
- 3Boire jusqu’à plus soif, s’enivrer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how imbiber appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La paille de fer étant constamment imbibée d'essence qui y monte par capillarité, offre à l'air qui la traverse une grande surface d’évaporation.
L’eau frangeait les ramures, alourdissait les fils d’araignée, imbibait les écorces gluantes, et des feuilles tombaient, çà et là, en tournant, dans le tranquille égouttement, dans le grand calme profond.
This word in other languages
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 "imbiber", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).