mamba

\mam.ba\

/\mam.ba\/ noun

The verdict

“mamba” is uncommon French (frequency #56,090 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#56,090
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Serpent du genre Dendroaspis, de la famille des élapidés, que l’on trouve dans une grande partie de l’Afrique, à l’exception des zones désertiques.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mamba · mamba · French

mamba · rank #56,090 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #56,090
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH malvoyants

Nearest frequency peer: malvoyants (-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 « mamba »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for mamba
PropertyValue
Headwordmamba
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mam.ba\
Letters5
Frequency rank#56,090
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « mamba » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).mambatombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « malvoyants » (#56,089), « managériales » (#56,091), « Manceau » (#56,092). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mamba » est au #56,090. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mamba is uncommon French at frequency #56,090 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \mam.ba\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Serpent du genre Dendroaspis, de la famille des élapidés, que l’on trouve dans une grande partie de l’Afrique, à l’exception des zones désertiques.".

mamba doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

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 mamba, spelled M-A-M-B-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Serpent du genre Dendroaspis, de la famille des élapidés, que l’on trouve dans une grande partie de l’Afrique, à l’exception des zones désertiques.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Swartz a tué dans le chariot un serpent de 2 mètres 75 de long, un mamba, le plus venimeux des ophidiens de ce pays-ci.
  2. C’est un mamba. Tante, je l’ai tué parce que sa morsure est mortelle, fit-il plus particulièrement à l’adresse d’Ahou.

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 "mamba"?
"mamba" is spelled M-A-M-B-A. The IPA pronunciation is \mam.ba\.
What does "mamba" mean?
As a noun, "mamba" means: Serpent du genre Dendroaspis, de la famille des élapidés, que l’on trouve dans une grande partie de l’Afrique, à l’exception des zones désertiques.
How do you pronounce "mamba"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mamba" is \mam.ba\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mamba" come from?
"mamba" 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 "mamba", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list