luciole
\ly.sjɔl\
The verdict
“luciole” is uncommon French (frequency #52,805 among 2,567 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,805
- frequency rank, French
- 2,567
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Genre d’insecte coléoptère, confondu quelquefois avec le ver luisant.
Corpus desk
Index FR-luciole · luciole · French
luciole · rank #52,805 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,805
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,567
- PHOTO-FINISH Lucinda
Nearest frequency peer: Lucinda (-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 « luciole »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- lubrifiants
lubrifiants
47,199 corpus weight
- Luchini
Luchini
47,198 corpus weight
- Lucinda
Lucinda
47,197 corpus weight
- luciole
luciole
47,196 corpus weight
- léninisme
léninisme
47,195 corpus weight
- Lévêque
Lévêque
47,194 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « luciole » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | luciole |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ly.sjɔl\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #52,805 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « luciole » en français
Rare enough to double-check
luciole is uncommon French at frequency #52,805 among 2,567 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ly.sjɔl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Genre d’insecte coléoptère, confondu quelquefois avec le ver luisant.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for luciole, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is luciole, spelled L-U-C-I-O-L-E.
Definition
- 1Genre d’insecte coléoptère, confondu quelquefois avec le ver luisant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how luciole appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…], et on vit leurs torches s’égarer dans la campagne et s’enfoncer dans la forêt, comme, dans un beau soir d’été, on voit scintiller les lucioles dans les plaines de Nice et de Pise.
[…] ; les étoiles se mêlent au feuillage noir ; les lucioles luisent dans l’herbe comme un reflet des étoiles.
Synonyms
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "luciole", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).