onomatopée
\ɔ.nɔ.ma.tɔ.pe\
The verdict
“onomatopée” is uncommon French (frequency #63,970 among 1,642 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,970
- frequency rank, French
- 1,642
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Formation d’un mot dont la prononciation imite un son.
Corpus desk
Index FR-onomatopee · onomatopée · French
onomatopée · rank #63,970 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,970
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,642
- PHOTO-FINISH oliva
Nearest frequency peer: oliva (-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 « onomatopée »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- obéissez
obéissez
36,035 corpus weight
- oisillons
oisillons
36,034 corpus weight
- oliva
oliva
36,033 corpus weight
- onomatopée
onomatopée
36,031 corpus weight
- outillages
outillages
36,028 corpus weight
- outrancier
outrancier
36,027 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « onomatopée » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | onomatopée |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɔ.nɔ.ma.tɔ.pe\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #63,970 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « onomatopée » en français
Rare enough to double-check
onomatopée is uncommon French at frequency #63,970 among 1,642 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɔ.nɔ.ma.tɔ.pe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for onomatopée in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is onomatopée, spelled O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-É-E.
Definition
- 1Formation d’un mot dont la prononciation imite un son.
- 2Mot imitatif lui-même, formé grâce à ce procédé, ou tournure expressive à base de syllabes dépourvues de sens. — Voir interjection.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how onomatopée appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Nous ne nous sommes pas contentés de classer les mots par grandes familles : afin qu’on s’assurât mieux de l’étendue & de la vérité de nos principes sur les mots formés par onomatopée, sur ceux qui se sont chargés d’initiales, sur les aspirations que remplacent les consonnes, nous avons mis à la tête de chaque lettre & par grandes masses : 1°. Les mots fo…
Max Müller s’élève contre cette théorie, attendu, dit-il, « que dans les langues connues jusqu’ici l’onomatopée n’a jamais donné de racines ». Il existe des mots formés par onomatopée ; or, ces mots sont incapables de devenir des radicaux, d’engendrer des mots nouveaux, ils sont stériles.
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 "onomatopée", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).