irrespirable

\i.ʁɛs.pi.ʁabl\

/\i.ʁɛs.pi.ʁabl\/ adj

The verdict

“irrespirable” is uncommon French (frequency #53,419 among 3,561 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,419
frequency rank, French
3,561
“I” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui ne peut servir à la respiration.

Corpus desk

Index FR-irrespirable · irrespirable · French

irrespirable · rank #53,419 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,419
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,561
  • PHOTO-FINISH interlocutrice

Nearest frequency peer: interlocutrice (-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 « irrespirable »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for irrespirable
PropertyValue
Headwordirrespirable
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\i.ʁɛs.pi.ʁabl\
Letters12
Frequency rank#53,419
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « irrespirable » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).irrespirabletombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « interlocutrice » (#53,418), « irréelle » (#53,420), « interculturel » (#53,417). Parmi 3,561 lemmes en « I », « irrespirable » est au #53,419. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

irrespirable is uncommon French at frequency #53,419 among 3,561 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \i.ʁɛs.pi.ʁabl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for irrespirable in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology 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 irrespirable, spelled I-R-R-E-S-P-I-R-A-B-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui ne peut servir à la respiration.
  2. 2
    Qui ne peut être respiré qu’avec danger.
  3. 3
    Insupportable, lourd, pesant.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les noyades secondaires : Succédant à une syncope ou à une perte de connaissance dont la particularité et de survenir en milieu irrespirable.
  2. Humbolt observe que l’on doit distinguer les effets de la lumière de ceux d'un air irrespirable. Les mineurs qui ont des os rhachitiques^([sic]), travaillent dans les moffettes.

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

How do you spell "irrespirable"?
"irrespirable" is spelled I-R-R-E-S-P-I-R-A-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \i.ʁɛs.pi.ʁabl\.
What does "irrespirable" mean?
As an adjective, "irrespirable" means: Qui ne peut servir à la respiration.
How do you pronounce "irrespirable"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "irrespirable" is \i.ʁɛs.pi.ʁabl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "irrespirable" come from?
"irrespirable" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "irrespirable", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list