narval
\naʁ.val\
The verdict
“narval” is uncommon French (frequency #85,960 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,960
- frequency rank, French
- 1,563
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mammifère marin des eaux arctiques, de l’ordre des cétacés, dont le mâle porte une longue défense, issue de la canine supérieure gauche.
Corpus desk
Index FR-narval · narval · French
narval · rank #85,960 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,960
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,563
- PHOTO-FINISH narcisses
Nearest frequency peer: narcisses (-2 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 « narval »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- méprend
méprend
14,045 corpus weight
- métaphoriqu…
métaphoriques
14,044 corpus weight
- narcisses
narcisses
14,043 corpus weight
- narval
narval
14,041 corpus weight
- nettoies
nettoies
14,038 corpus weight
- nettoyants
nettoyants
14,037 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « narval » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | narval |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \naʁ.val\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #85,960 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « narval » en français
Rare enough to double-check
narval is uncommon French at frequency #85,960 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \naʁ.val\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Mammifère marin des eaux arctiques, de l’ordre des cétacés, dont le mâle porte une longue défense, issue de la canine supérieure gauche.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for narval, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology 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 narval, spelled N-A-R-V-A-L.
Definition
- 1Mammifère marin des eaux arctiques, de l’ordre des cétacés, dont le mâle porte une longue défense, issue de la canine supérieure gauche.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how narval appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le narval, petite baleine à la longue défense d’ivoire, vit dans l’Arctique. Contrairement à son cousin, le béluga, le narval est presque inconnu.
Si pendant longtemps on a eu peu d’informations sur les narvals, c’est qu’ils vivent dans des eaux difficiles d’accès, au pôle nord, loin des regards humains.
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 "narval", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).