orfraie
\ɔʁ.fʁɛ\
The verdict
“orfraie” is uncommon French (frequency #90,995 among 1,642 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #90,995
- frequency rank, French
- 1,642
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Oiseau de proie diurne, l’aigle pygargue (Haliaeetus albicilla).
Corpus desk
Index FR-orfraie · orfraie · French
orfraie · rank #90,995 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #90,995
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,642
- PHOTO-FINISH opposite
Nearest frequency peer: opposite (-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 « orfraie »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Oolong
Oolong
9,009 corpus weight
- Oona
Oona
9,008 corpus weight
- opposite
opposite
9,007 corpus weight
- orfraie
orfraie
9,006 corpus weight
- ornementaux
ornementaux
9,005 corpus weight
- Osny
Osny
9,004 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « orfraie » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | orfraie |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɔʁ.fʁɛ\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #90,995 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « orfraie » en français
Rare enough to double-check
orfraie is uncommon French at frequency #90,995 among 1,642 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɔʁ.fʁɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for orfraie, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is orfraie, spelled O-R-F-R-A-I-E.
Definition
- 1Oiseau de proie diurne, l’aigle pygargue (Haliaeetus albicilla).
- 2Synonyme de balbuzard (au sens large) ou de balbuzard pêcheur (au sens étroit).
- 3Oiseau de mauvais augure.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how orfraie appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le chasseur Sabine parvint à abattre un couple de ces gigantesques orfraies, dont l’envergure mesurait près de six pieds, – magnifiques échantillons de ces oiseaux voyageurs, exclusivement ichtyophages, que l’hiver chasse jusqu’aux rivages du golfe du Mexique, et que l’été ramène vers les plus hautes latitudes de l’Amérique septentrionale.
La citation : Tout le monde ne peut pas être orphelin devenait : Tout le monde ne peut pas être orfrelin (petit de l'orfraie, en patois, par confusion d'orfraie avec effraie, comme dans Rousseau et Balzac).
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 "orfraie"?
What does "orfraie" mean?
How do you pronounce "orfraie"?
What language does "orfraie" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "orfraie", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).