macabre
\ma.kɑbʁ\
The verdict
“macabre” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #23,273 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #23,273
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qualifie une « danse » consistant en une suite d’images qui représentent la mort entraînant avec elle, en dansant, des personnages de toutes les conditions → voir danse macabre.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | macabre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ma.kɑbʁ\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #23,273 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “macabre” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for macabre is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ma.kɑbʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #23,273 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for macabre, with forms such as "amcabre", "maacbre", and "macabbre". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "marbre", "macaire", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is macabre, spelled M-A-C-A-B-R-E.
Definition
- 1Qualifie une « danse » consistant en une suite d’images qui représentent la mort entraînant avec elle, en dansant, des personnages de toutes les conditions → voir danse macabre.
- 2Qui est lugubre, funèbre, sinistre.
- 3Lourd à porter. ^([3])
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amcabre,maacbre,macabbre,macaber,macabrre,macarbe,macbare,maccabre,mcaabre,mmacabre
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of macabre - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "macabre"?
What does "macabre" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "macabre"?
How do you pronounce "macabre"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “macabre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is M-A-C-A-B-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ma.kɑbʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “marbre” - see the side-by-side comparison. macabre vs marbre
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.