marsouin

\maʁ.swɛ̃\

/\maʁ.swɛ̃\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“marsouin” is uncommon French (frequency #75,890 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#75,890
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit cétacé à dents, au rostre court et aux dents pointues et courbées, plutôt noirs sur la face dorsale, et blancs sur la face ventrale.

Corpus desk

Index FR-marsouin · marsouin · French

marsouin · rank #75,890 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #75,890
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH marsault

Nearest frequency peer: marsault (-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 « marsouin »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for marsouin
PropertyValue
Headwordmarsouin
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\maʁ.swɛ̃\
Letters8
Frequency rank#75,890
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « marsouin » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.marsouintombe 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: « marsault » (#75,889), « masochistes » (#75,891), « marrent » (#75,888). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « marsouin » est au #75,890. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

marsouin is uncommon French at frequency #75,890 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \maʁ.swɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for marsouin in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

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 marsouin, spelled M-A-R-S-O-U-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit cétacé à dents, au rostre court et aux dents pointues et courbées, plutôt noirs sur la face dorsale, et blancs sur la face ventrale.
  2. 2
    Soldat de l’infanterie coloniale, puis membre des troupes de marine (infanterie de marine).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Une fois passée l’embouchure de la Tamise, elle eut un peu de distraction, parce que les troupeaux de Neptune vinrent folâtrer autour du navire. Je crois que ces bêtes s’appellent des marsouins.
  2. Aussi le lendemain, quand nous partîmes, il vint gracieusement graisser nos souliers avec l’huile d'un marsouin qu'il avait tué et distillé lui-même.

Synonyms

cochon de mertigre bleu

This word in other languages

porpoise(English)marsopa(Español)Schweinswal(Deutsch)

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 "marsouin"?
"marsouin" is spelled M-A-R-S-O-U-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \maʁ.swɛ̃\.
What does "marsouin" mean?
As a noun, "marsouin" means: Petit cétacé à dents, au rostre court et aux dents pointues et courbées, plutôt noirs sur la face dorsale, et blancs sur la face ventrale.
How do you pronounce "marsouin"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "marsouin" is \maʁ.swɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "marsouin" come from?
"marsouin" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "marsouin", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

marsault#75,889maristes#75,886Mauresmo#75,895mandrier#75,880

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list