nimbe
\nɛ̃b\
The verdict
“nimbe” is uncommon French (frequency #98,296 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,296
- frequency rank, French
- 1,563
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cercle ou auréole que les peintres ou les sculpteurs mettent autour de la tête des saints.
Corpus desk
Index FR-nimbe · nimbe · French
nimbe · rank #98,296 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,296
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,563
- PHOTO-FINISH nio
Nearest frequency peer: nio (+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 « nimbe »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Nicopolis
Nicopolis
1,708 corpus weight
- nightclub
nightclub
1,707 corpus weight
- nimbe
nimbe
1,705 corpus weight
- nio
nio
1,704 corpus weight
- nions
nions
1,703 corpus weight
- nodal
nodal
1,701 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « nimbe » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nimbe |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \nɛ̃b\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #98,296 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « nimbe » en français
Rare enough to double-check
nimbe is uncommon French at frequency #98,296 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \nɛ̃b\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for nimbe, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is nimbe, spelled N-I-M-B-E.
Definition
- 1Cercle ou auréole que les peintres ou les sculpteurs mettent autour de la tête des saints.
- 2Cercle que les peintres, les sculpteurs anciens traçaient quelquefois autour de la tête d’une divinité, d’un héros divinisé.
- 3Cercle que, sur certaines médailles, et particulièrement sur des médailles du Bas-Empire, on remarque autour de la tête de quelques empereurs.
- 4Halo ou flou qui entoure une personne ou une chose.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nimbe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le nimbe de carton doré qui ceignait sa tête angélique nous paraissait bien naturellement un cercle de lumière […].
Les quatre premiers ordres, les plus élevés de tous, portent le nimbe doré. Les prophètes et les patriarches, ces saints de la vieille loi, et qui n’ont connu la vérité qu’imparfaitement et à travers des métaphores, ont le nimbe en argent.
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 "nimbe", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).