limbo

\lim.bo\

/\lim.bo\/ noun

The verdict

“limbo” is uncommon French (frequency #63,887 among 2,567 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#63,887
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de danse où l'on passe en dessous d'un bâton horizontal le plus bas possible sans le toucher et en restant sur ses pieds.

Corpus desk

Index FR-limbo · limbo · French

limbo · rank #63,887 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #63,887
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH lignon

Nearest frequency peer: lignon (-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 « limbo »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for limbo
PropertyValue
Headwordlimbo
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\lim.bo\
Letters5
Frequency rank#63,887
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « limbo » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).limbotombe 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: « lignon » (#63,886), « lingala » (#63,888), « lobos » (#63,889). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « limbo » est au #63,887. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

limbo is uncommon French at frequency #63,887 among 2,567 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \lim.bo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sorte de danse où l'on passe en dessous d'un bâton horizontal le plus bas possible sans le toucher et en restant sur ses pieds.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for limbo, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, 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 limbo, spelled L-I-M-B-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sorte de danse où l'on passe en dessous d'un bâton horizontal le plus bas possible sans le toucher et en restant sur ses pieds.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Son passe-temps favori : danser le limbo dans les toilettes publiques.

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 "limbo"?
"limbo" is spelled L-I-M-B-O. The IPA pronunciation is \lim.bo\.
What does "limbo" mean?
As a noun, "limbo" means: Sorte de danse où l'on passe en dessous d'un bâton horizontal le plus bas possible sans le toucher et en restant sur ses pieds.
How do you pronounce "limbo"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "limbo" is \lim.bo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "limbo" come from?
"limbo" 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 "limbo", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list