narthex
\naʁ.tɛks\
The verdict
“narthex” is uncommon French (frequency #87,876 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,876
- frequency rank, French
- 1,563
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Portique fermé, élevé en avant de la nef, dans les anciennes basiliques.
Corpus desk
Index FR-narthex · narthex · French
narthex · rank #87,876 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,876
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,563
- PHOTO-FINISH Nanard
Nearest frequency peer: Nanard (-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 « narthex »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Naboo
Naboo
12,128 corpus weight
- nag
nag
12,127 corpus weight
- Nanard
Nanard
12,126 corpus weight
- narthex
narthex
12,125 corpus weight
- natali
natali
12,123 corpus weight
- Naylor
Naylor
12,122 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « narthex » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | narthex |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \naʁ.tɛks\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #87,876 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « narthex » en français
Rare enough to double-check
narthex is uncommon French at frequency #87,876 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \naʁ.tɛks\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Portique fermé, élevé en avant de la nef, dans les anciennes basiliques.".
narthex has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is narthex, spelled N-A-R-T-H-E-X.
Definition
- 1Portique fermé, élevé en avant de la nef, dans les anciennes basiliques.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how narthex appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Enfin, l’entrée principale, le portique d’honneur de certaines Églises, telles que celles de Vézelay, de Paray-le-Monial, de Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, à Paris, est précédé d’un vestibule couvert, souvent profond et volontairement sombre, appelé narthex. Le baptistère était autrefois sous ce porche. C’était un lieu d’attente et de pardon, une figure du pu…
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 "narthex", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).