méandre

\me.ɑ̃dʁ\

/\me.ɑ̃dʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“méandre” is uncommon French (frequency #59,473 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,473
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sinuosité d’un fleuve, d’une rivière, par allusion au fleuve de Phrygie qui portait ce nom.

Corpus desk

Index FR-meandre · méandre · French

méandre · rank #59,473 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,473
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH médiathèques

Nearest frequency peer: médiathèques (+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 « méandre »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for méandre
PropertyValue
Headwordméandre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\me.ɑ̃dʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#59,473
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « méandre » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.méandretombe 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: « médiathèques » (#59,474), « mutual » (#59,470), « Nadja » (#59,476). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « méandre » est au #59,473. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

méandre is uncommon French at frequency #59,473 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \me.ɑ̃dʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for méandre in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, 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 méandre, spelled M-É-A-N-D-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sinuosité d’un fleuve, d’une rivière, par allusion au fleuve de Phrygie qui portait ce nom.
  2. 2
    Chose tortueuse.
  3. 3
    Configuration dans un plan formée par deux courbes planes simples se coupant transversalement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il pouvait être cinq heures de l'après-midi. — Le soleil à son déclin répandait des traînées de poudre d'or sur les méandres prochains de la Seine et noyait au sein d'une buée lumineuse les horizons lointains.
  2. De grands ravins y déroulent des méandres grisâtres, semblables au lit d'un fleuve desséché.

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 "méandre"?
"méandre" is spelled M-É-A-N-D-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \me.ɑ̃dʁ\.
What does "méandre" mean?
As a noun, "méandre" means: Sinuosité d’un fleuve, d’une rivière, par allusion au fleuve de Phrygie qui portait ce nom.
How do you pronounce "méandre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "méandre" is \me.ɑ̃dʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "méandre" come from?
"méandre" 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 "méandre", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list