limerick

\li.mə.ʁik\

/\li.mə.ʁik\/ noun

The verdict

“limerick” is uncommon French (frequency #92,939 among 2,567 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,939
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - En poésie britannique, épigramme burlesque de cinq vers.

Corpus desk

Index FR-limerick · limerick · French

limerick · rank #92,939 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,939
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH lilie

Nearest frequency peer: lilie (-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 « limerick »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for limerick
PropertyValue
Headwordlimerick
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\li.mə.ʁik\
Letters8
Frequency rank#92,939
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « limerick » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).limericktombe 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: « lilie » (#92,938), « lik » (#92,937), « limp » (#92,941). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « limerick » est au #92,939. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

limerick is uncommon French at frequency #92,939 among 2,567 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \li.mə.ʁik\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "En poésie britannique, épigramme burlesque de cinq vers.".

Zero misspellings are on record for limerick in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is limerick, spelled L-I-M-E-R-I-C-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    En poésie britannique, épigramme burlesque de cinq vers.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le limerick fait partie de la littérature à contraintes, chère à l’Oulipo, dont les chevilles ouvrières furent Georges Perec et Raymond Queneau... qui en furent également les maîtres.
  2. Remarquez, je comprends très bien l’utilisation des termes grossiers ou vulgaires, ils ont leur prix, leur poids, leur efficacité. Pourquoi pas les paroles qu’on a mises sur les sonneries de clairon, pourquoi pas les chansons de salles de garde, pourquoi pas les limericks aussi, qui sont si drôles et si grossiers ?

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 "limerick"?
"limerick" is spelled L-I-M-E-R-I-C-K. The IPA pronunciation is \li.mə.ʁik\.
What does "limerick" mean?
As a noun, "limerick" means: En poésie britannique, épigramme burlesque de cinq vers.
How do you pronounce "limerick"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "limerick" is \li.mə.ʁik\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "limerick" come from?
"limerick" 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 "limerick", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list