onques
\ɔ̃k\
The verdict
“onques” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - (Forme négative) Jamais. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec ne.
Corpus desk
Index FR-onques · onques · French
onques · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | onques |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ɔ̃k\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « onques » en français
Rare enough to double-check
onques is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \ɔ̃k\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "(Forme négative) Jamais. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec ne.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for onques, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is onques, spelled O-N-Q-U-E-S.
Definition
- 1(Forme négative) Jamais. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec ne.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how onques appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
On ne vit onques un si méchant homme.
Il n’en fut onques de plus maladroit.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.