listeria

\lis.te.ʁja\

/\lis.te.ʁja\/ noun

The verdict

“listeria” is uncommon French (frequency #91,889 among 2,567 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,889
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Un bacille de petite taille, mobile à 20 °C (grâce à des flagelles), gram positif, catalase positif, non sporulé, anaérobie facultatif, ubiquistes et très résistante, pouvant être agent d'une des l...

Corpus desk

Index FR-listeria · listeria · French

listeria · rank #91,889 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,889
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH lived

Nearest frequency peer: lived (+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 « listeria »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for listeria
PropertyValue
Headwordlisteria
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\lis.te.ʁja\
Letters8
Frequency rank#91,889
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « listeria » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).listeriatombe 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: « lived » (#91,890), « lieus » (#91,886), « licencieux » (#91,885). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « listeria » est au #91,889. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

listeria is uncommon French at frequency #91,889 among 2,567 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \lis.te.ʁja\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Un bacille de petite taille, mobile à 20 °C (grâce à des flagelles), gram positif, catalase positif, non sporulé, anaérobie facultatif, ubiquistes et très résistante, pouvant être agent d'une des l...".

No generated misspelling entries exist for listeria in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is listeria, spelled L-I-S-T-E-R-I-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Un bacille de petite taille, mobile à 20 °C (grâce à des flagelles), gram positif, catalase positif, non sporulé, anaérobie facultatif, ubiquistes et très résistante, pouvant être agent d'une des listérioses.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Mais des melons, des pousses de soja ou du céleri ont déjà été responsables d’infections à la listeria.

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 "listeria"?
"listeria" is spelled L-I-S-T-E-R-I-A. The IPA pronunciation is \lis.te.ʁja\.
What does "listeria" mean?
As a noun, "listeria" means: Un bacille de petite taille, mobile à 20 °C (grâce à des flagelles), gram positif, catalase positif, non sporulé, anaérobie facultatif, ubiquistes et très résistante, pouvant être agent d'une des l...
How do you pronounce "listeria"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "listeria" is \lis.te.ʁja\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "listeria" come from?
"listeria" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "listeria", 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