kawaii

\ka.wa.i\

/\ka.wa.i\/ adj

The verdict

“kawaii” is uncommon French (frequency #54,059 among 737 “K” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,059
frequency rank, French
737
“K” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mignon, spécialement en parlant de la pop culture japonaise.

Corpus desk

Index FR-kawaii · kawaii · French

kawaii · rank #54,059 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,059
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 737
  • PHOTO-FINISH Katerine

Nearest frequency peer: Katerine (-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 « kawaii »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for kawaii
PropertyValue
Headwordkawaii
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ka.wa.i\
Letters6
Frequency rank#54,059
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « kawaii » en français

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Katerine » (#54,058), « kari » (#54,057), « kibboutz » (#54,061). Parmi 737 lemmes en « K », « kawaii » est au #54,059. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

kawaii is uncommon French at frequency #54,059 among 737 “K” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ka.wa.i\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Mignon, spécialement en parlant de la pop culture japonaise.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for kawaii, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is kawaii, spelled K-A-W-A-I-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mignon, spécialement en parlant de la pop culture japonaise.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Pour dessiner un chat kawaii, on ne dessine pas les yeux tels qu’ils sont dans la réalité ! Selon leur forme, ils expriment un caractère ou une émotion.
  2. Aux yeux des plus jeunes, – et cela relève tout autant du stéréotype – le pays des mangas, des jeux vidéos et de l’esthétique kawaii apparaît comme un univers de science-fiction et suscite une admiration béate.

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 "kawaii"?
"kawaii" is spelled K-A-W-A-I-I. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.wa.i\.
What does "kawaii" mean?
As an adjective, "kawaii" means: Mignon, spécialement en parlant de la pop culture japonaise.
How do you pronounce "kawaii"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "kawaii" is \ka.wa.i\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "kawaii" come from?
"kawaii" 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 "kawaii", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list