listeria
\lis.te.ʁja\
The verdict
“listeria” is uncommon French (frequency #91,889 among 128,088 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #91,889
- frequency rank, French
- 128,088
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | listeria |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \lis.te.ʁja\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #91,889 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “listeria” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
listeria is uncommon French at frequency #91,889 among 128,088 “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
- 1Un 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.
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"?
What does "listeria" mean?
How do you pronounce "listeria"?
What language does "listeria" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “listeria”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is L-I-S-T-E-R-I-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \lis.te.ʁja\ (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
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.