Orval
\ɔʁ.val\
The verdict
“Orval” is uncommon French (frequency #61,754 among 1,642 “O” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,754
- frequency rank, French
- 1,642
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Commune française, située dans le département du Cher.
Corpus desk
Index FR-orval · Orval · French
Orval · rank #61,754 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,754
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,642
- PHOTO-FINISH orthophonie
Nearest frequency peer: orthophonie (-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 « Orval »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- oligocène
oligocène
38,252 corpus weight
- Ollier
Ollier
38,251 corpus weight
- orthophonie
orthophonie
38,248 corpus weight
- Orval
Orval
38,247 corpus weight
- Otaku
Otaku
38,245 corpus weight
- outrecuidan…
outrecuidance
38,243 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « Orval » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Orval |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | \ɔʁ.val\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #61,754 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « Orval » en français
Rare enough to double-check
Orval is uncommon French at frequency #61,754 among 1,642 “O” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \ɔʁ.val\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Orval, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is Orval, spelled O-R-V-A-L.
Definition
- 1Commune française, située dans le département du Cher.
- 2Village et ancienne commune française, située dans le département de la Manche intégrée dans la commune d'Orval sur Sienne en janvier 2016.
- 3Nom d'une abbaye sise à Villers-devant-Orval, aujourd'hui dans la province belge de Luxembourg.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Orval appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Dans ce temps-là, mon père m’emmena à la foire d’Orval, du côté de Saint-Amand, pour vendre une jument poulinière, et, pour la première fois de ma vie, je fus trois jours absent de la maison. — (George Sand, Les Maîtres sonneurs, George Bell and sons, 1908, page 13)
Foulques, curé de Blagny, prétendait que les religieux d’Orval lui avaient dérobé une partie de sa dîme. L'abbaye se défendit vivement contre ce reproche.
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 "Orval", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).