lion de mer

/\ljɔ̃ də mɛʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“lion de mer” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun — the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
11
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Nom donné à plusieurs espèces d’animaux carnivores de la sous-famille des Otariinés dont le mâle présente la particularité de porter une crinière.

Key facts for lion de mer
PropertyValue
Headwordlion de mer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ljɔ̃ də mɛʁ\
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “lion de mer” sits in French frequency

lion de mer falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words — the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for lion de mer is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ljɔ̃ də mɛʁ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Nom donné à plusieurs espèces d’animaux carnivores de la sous-famille des Otariinés dont le mâle présente la particularité de porter une crinière.".

No misspelling variants are generated for lion de mer in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is lion de mer, spelled L-I-O-N- -D-E- -M-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom donné à plusieurs espèces d’animaux carnivores de la sous-famille des Otariinés dont le mâle présente la particularité de porter une crinière.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lion de mer"?
"lion de mer" is spelled L-I-O-N- -D-E- -M-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ljɔ̃ də mɛʁ\.
What does "lion de mer" mean?
As a noun, "lion de mer" means: Nom donné à plusieurs espèces d’animaux carnivores de la sous-famille des Otariinés dont le mâle présente la particularité de porter une crinière.
How do you pronounce "lion de mer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lion de mer" is \ljɔ̃ də mɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "lion de mer" come from?
"lion de mer" 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.

Using “lion de mer”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is L-I-O-N- -D-E- -M-E-R — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ljɔ̃ də mɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter L in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.