nimbus
\nɛ̃.bys\
The verdict
“nimbus” is uncommon French (frequency #50,995 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,995
- frequency rank, French
- 1,563
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom donné à une couche épaisse et longue de nuages d’un gris plus ou moins foncé, d’où tombe de la pluie ou de la neige.
Corpus desk
Index FR-nimbus · nimbus · French
nimbus · rank #50,995 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,995
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,563
- PHOTO-FINISH niaiserie
Nearest frequency peer: niaiserie (-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 « nimbus »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- nais
nais
49,009 corpus weight
- nautisme
nautisme
49,008 corpus weight
- niaiserie
niaiserie
49,007 corpus weight
- nimbus
nimbus
49,006 corpus weight
- nostrum
nostrum
49,005 corpus weight
- nouent
nouent
49,004 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « nimbus » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nimbus |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \nɛ̃.bys\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #50,995 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « nimbus » en français
Rare enough to double-check
nimbus is uncommon French at frequency #50,995 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \nɛ̃.bys\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Nom donné à une couche épaisse et longue de nuages d’un gris plus ou moins foncé, d’où tombe de la pluie ou de la neige.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for nimbus in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is nimbus, spelled N-I-M-B-U-S.
Definition
- 1Nom donné à une couche épaisse et longue de nuages d’un gris plus ou moins foncé, d’où tombe de la pluie ou de la neige.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how nimbus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le 12 mai, un nimbus d’une longueur peu commune déverse une coulée d’eau si drue que Goethe l’imagine fichée au sol, retenant le nuage dans sa progression jusqu’à ce qu’il finisse par se disloquer.
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 "nimbus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).