ordinary

\ˈɔɹd.ˌnɛɹ.i\

/\ˈɔɹd.ˌnɛɹ.i\/ adj

The verdict

“ordinary” is uncommon French (frequency #70,078 among 1,642 “O” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,078
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ordinaire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ordinary · ordinary · French

ordinary · rank #70,078 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,078
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH Orbigny

Nearest frequency peer: Orbigny (-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 « ordinary »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ordinary
PropertyValue
Headwordordinary
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ˈɔɹd.ˌnɛɹ.i\
Letters8
Frequency rank#70,078
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « ordinary » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).ordinarytombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Orbigny » (#70,077), « Organ » (#70,079), « olfactives » (#70,076). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « ordinary » est au #70,078. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ordinary is uncommon French at frequency #70,078 among 1,642 “O” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ˈɔɹd.ˌnɛɹ.i\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

ordinary doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is ordinary, spelled O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ordinaire.
  2. 2
    Quelconque.

Synonyms

usualrun-of-the-mill

Antonyms

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 "ordinary"?
"ordinary" is spelled O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈɔɹd.ˌnɛɹ.i\.
What does "ordinary" mean?
As an adjective, "ordinary" means: Ordinaire.
How do you pronounce "ordinary"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ordinary" is \ˈɔɹd.ˌnɛɹ.i\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ordinary" come from?
"ordinary" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "ordinary", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list