kawa

\ka.wa\

/\ka.wa\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“kawa” is uncommon French (frequency #55,395 among 737 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,395
frequency rank, French
737
“K” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Variante de caoua, café.

Corpus desk

Index FR-kawa · kawa · French

kawa · rank #55,395 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #55,395
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 737
  • PHOTO-FINISH karité

Nearest frequency peer: karité (-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 « kawa »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for kawa
PropertyValue
Headwordkawa
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ka.wa\
Letters4
Frequency rank#55,395
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « kawa » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).kawatombe 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: « karité » (#55,394), « kam » (#55,393), « kernel » (#55,397). Parmi 737 lemmes en « K », « kawa » est au #55,395. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

kawa is uncommon French at frequency #55,395 among 737 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ka.wa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Variante de caoua, café.".

kawa doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is kawa, spelled K-A-W-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Variante de caoua, café.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Avant, même du temps de l’Olivetti, des clopes et du kawa, je n’étais qu’un être non fini, une gestation.

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 "kawa"?
"kawa" is spelled K-A-W-A. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.wa\.
What does "kawa" mean?
As a noun, "kawa" means: Variante de caoua, café.
How do you pronounce "kawa"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "kawa" is \ka.wa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "kawa" come from?
"kawa" 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 "kawa", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

kaba#55,392juba#55,389joni#55,386lodi#55,412

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list