PCB

\pe.se.be\

/\pe.se.be\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“PCB” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #45,779) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#45,779
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
20
confusable pairs

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

Corpus desk

Index FR-pcb · PCB · French

PCB · rank #45,779 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #45,779
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH Pattinson

Nearest frequency peer: Pattinson (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « PCB »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « PCB » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

PCB vs pu
0% similar
PCB vs PS
33% similar
PCB vs PQ
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for PCB
PropertyValue
HeadwordPCB
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pe.se.be\
Letters3
Frequency rank#45,779
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « PCB »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.PCBse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Pattinson » (#45,778), « parisis » (#45,777), « permettons » (#45,781). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « PCB » est au #45,779. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for PCB is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "PS", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \pe.se.be\. Frequency #45,779 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No generated misspelling entries exist for PCB in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PS", "PQ", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is PCB, spelled P-C-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    Polychlorobiphényle.
  2. 2
    Circuit imprimé.
  3. 3
    Bloc de contrôle de processus : structure de données du noyau d'un système d’exploitation représentant l’état d’un processus donné.
  4. 4
    Quantité de pièce d'un conditionnement, très utilisé notamment dans le domaine alimentaire sec.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how PCB appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Les PCB, ou PolyChloroBiphényles, et PCT ou PolyChloroTerphényles sont des dérivés chimiques chlorés plus connus en France sous le nom de pyralènes. Note : La typographie du ministère ne respecte pas les règles généralement admises en France.
  2. Les animaux sauvages profitent, eux aussi, des pollutions industrielles, quand ils « broutent » sur des sols pollués à la dioxine, au furane et aux PCB, ou se désaltèrent dans des cours d’eau chimiqués.

Synonyms

pyralène

This word in other languages

PCB(English)

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 "PCB"?
"PCB" is spelled P-C-B. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.se.be\.
What does "PCB" mean?
As a noun, "PCB" means: Polychlorobiphényle.
What words are commonly confused with "PCB"?
"PCB" is commonly confused with "pu", "PS", "PQ". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "PCB"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "PCB" is \pe.se.be\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "PCB" come from?
"PCB" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "PCB", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

P2P#45,775MSA#45,745MJC#45,739KTM#45,700

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list