ineffable
\i.nɛ.fabl\
The verdict
“ineffable” is uncommon French (frequency #54,648 among 3,561 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,648
- frequency rank, French
- 3,561
- “I” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui ne peut pas être exprimé par des paroles.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ineffable · ineffable · French
ineffable · rank #54,648 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,648
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,561
- PHOTO-FINISH inextricable
Nearest frequency peer: inextricable (+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 « ineffable »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- impressionn…
impressionnent
45,356 corpus weight
- inconstitut…
inconstitutionnelle
45,355 corpus weight
- ineffable
ineffable
45,353 corpus weight
- inextricable
inextricable
45,352 corpus weight
- influenza
influenza
45,351 corpus weight
- informative
informative
45,350 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « ineffable » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ineffable |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \i.nɛ.fabl\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #54,648 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « ineffable » en français
Rare enough to double-check
ineffable is uncommon French at frequency #54,648 among 3,561 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \i.nɛ.fabl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for ineffable in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is ineffable, spelled I-N-E-F-F-A-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Qui ne peut pas être exprimé par des paroles.
- 2Inqualifiable, inénarrable (en raison de son caractère ridicule).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ineffable appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Des écumes de fleurs ont bercé mes dérades Et d’ineffables vents m’ont ailé par instants.
On croit ordinairement, il est vrai, que ce qu'il y a de plus haut, c'est l'ineffable.
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 "ineffable", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).