orc
\ɔʁk\
The verdict
“orc” is uncommon French (frequency #59,503 among 1,642 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,503
- frequency rank, French
- 1,642
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Créature fantastique aux mœurs brutales.
Corpus desk
Index FR-orc · orc · French
orc · rank #59,503 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #59,503
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,642
- PHOTO-FINISH orbes
Nearest frequency peer: orbes (-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 « orc »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- opta
opta
40,501 corpus weight
- oratorio
oratorio
40,500 corpus weight
- orbes
orbes
40,499 corpus weight
- orc
orc
40,498 corpus weight
- orgueilleuse
orgueilleuse
40,497 corpus weight
- ornant
ornant
40,496 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « orc » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | orc |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɔʁk\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #59,503 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « orc » en français
Rare enough to double-check
orc is uncommon French at frequency #59,503 among 1,642 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɔʁk\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for orc in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is orc, spelled O-R-C.
Definition
- 1Créature fantastique aux mœurs brutales.
- 2Nom donné par les Ukrainiens aux soldats russes participant à l’invasion de l’Ukraine.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how orc appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Shan observait cet accès lorsqu’un orc se planta devant lui et lui parla dans sa langue incompréhensible. Le jeune homme ignora l’orc et s’approcha de l’échelle. L’orc voulut l’empêcher d’aller plus loin en lui mettant la main sur l’épaule.
Notamment en qualifiant les soldats russes d’«orcs», du nom de ces affreuses créatures humanoïdes qui envahissent la Terre du milieu pour le compte du non moins affreux Sauron, seigneur des ténèbres régnant sur le Mordor.
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 "orc", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).