kapo

\ka.po\

/\ka.po\/ noun

The verdict

“kapo” is uncommon French (frequency #86,846 among 737 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#86,846
frequency rank, French
737
“K” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Surveillant, prisonnier de droit commun, chargé de dénoncer et punir les prisonniers politiques dans les camps de concentration soviétiques ou nazis.

Corpus desk

Index FR-kapo · kapo · French

kapo · rank #86,846 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #86,846
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 737
  • PHOTO-FINISH Kap

Nearest frequency peer: Kap (-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 « kapo »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for kapo
PropertyValue
Headwordkapo
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ka.po\
Letters4
Frequency rank#86,846
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « kapo » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.kapotombe 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: « Kap » (#86,845), « Karsenti » (#86,847), « karstiques » (#86,848). Parmi 737 lemmes en « K », « kapo » est au #86,846. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

kapo is uncommon French at frequency #86,846 among 737 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ka.po\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for kapo in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is kapo, spelled K-A-P-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Surveillant, prisonnier de droit commun, chargé de dénoncer et punir les prisonniers politiques dans les camps de concentration soviétiques ou nazis.
  2. 2
    Personne armée de bons principes, qui veille à la bonne tenue d’un groupe dont elle s’estime responsable devant la hiérarchie invisible.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les spectateurs attendaient avec impatience la séquence des kapos.
  2. Depuis toujours, le lit est le lieu du souvenir. Gagné de haute lutte, quand elle était au camp, lorsqu’elle pouvait tromper les kapos et rester cachée un moment de plus sous la guenille qui servait de couverture.

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 "kapo"?
"kapo" is spelled K-A-P-O. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.po\.
What does "kapo" mean?
As a noun, "kapo" means: Surveillant, prisonnier de droit commun, chargé de dénoncer et punir les prisonniers politiques dans les camps de concentration soviétiques ou nazis.
How do you pronounce "kapo"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "kapo" is \ka.po\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "kapo" come from?
"kapo" 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 "kapo", 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