nouba

\nu.ba\

/\nu.ba\/ noun

The verdict

“nouba” is uncommon French (frequency #76,837 among 1,563 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#76,837
frequency rank, French
1,563
“N” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Musique arabo-andalouse, jouée sur un mode, à une heure et selon un ordre déterminés.

Corpus desk

Index FR-nouba · nouba · French

nouba · rank #76,837 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #76,837
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,563
  • PHOTO-FINISH nuisant

Nearest frequency peer: nuisant (+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 « nouba »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for nouba
PropertyValue
Headwordnouba
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\nu.ba\
Letters5
Frequency rank#76,837
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « nouba » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.noubatombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « nuisant » (#76,839), « nuri » (#76,840), « nomenclatures » (#76,833). Parmi 1,563 lemmes en « N », « nouba » est au #76,837. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

nouba is uncommon French at frequency #76,837 among 1,563 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \nu.ba\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for nouba, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists 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 nouba, spelled N-O-U-B-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Musique arabo-andalouse, jouée sur un mode, à une heure et selon un ordre déterminés.
  2. 2
    Orchestre de tirailleurs nord-africains.
  3. 3
    Fête, java.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il existe différents styles de noubas, le gharnati, le m(a)alouf, etc.
  2. Une noce ne va pas sans musique, l’Algérie sans la nouba, cette musique des tirailleurs algériens qui a enchanté les boulevards parisiens en -13.

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 "nouba"?
"nouba" is spelled N-O-U-B-A. The IPA pronunciation is \nu.ba\.
What does "nouba" mean?
As a noun, "nouba" means: Musique arabo-andalouse, jouée sur un mode, à une heure et selon un ordre déterminés.
How do you pronounce "nouba"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nouba" is \nu.ba\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nouba" come from?
"nouba" 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 "nouba", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list