orpaillage
French, noun/ɔʁ.pa.jaʒ/
orpaillage is spelled O-R-P-A-I-L-L-A-G-E (10 letters) and appears about once in every 6 million words in written French, the 80,051st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Orpaillage is a French masculine noun meaning “placer mining” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Prospection et extraction artisanale de l’or à partir de puits individuels à ciel ouvert, ou dans les…”.
What does orpaillage mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineplacer mining
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Prospection et extraction artisanale de l’or à partir de puits individuels à ciel ouvert, ou dans les rivières.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of orpaillage
- orpaillages plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce orpaillage?
- /ɔʁ.pa.jaʒ/
- \ɔʁ.pa.jaʒ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is orpaillage in French?
orpaillage appears about once in every 6 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).