Pfaff
The verdict
“Pfaff” is uncommon French (frequency #95,152 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #95,152
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom de famille.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pfaff · Pfaff · French
Pfaff · rank #95,152 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #95,152
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH petis
Nearest frequency peer: petis (-2 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 « Pfaff »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- perclus
perclus
4,854 corpus weight
- pesais
pesais
4,852 corpus weight
- petis
petis
4,851 corpus weight
- Pfaff
Pfaff
4,849 corpus weight
- phénoliques
phénoliques
4,847 corpus weight
- phénotypes
phénotypes
4,846 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « Pfaff » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Pfaff |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #95,152 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « Pfaff » en français
Rare enough to double-check
Pfaff is uncommon French at frequency #95,152 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Nom de famille.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for Pfaff, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is Pfaff, spelled P-F-A-F-F.
Definition
- 1Nom de famille.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Pfaff appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Jean-Marie Pfaff.
Elle avait mal au dos et n’avait pas d'appétit. En outre, chez les Pfaff, ce n’était pas très agréable.
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 "Pfaff"?
What does "Pfaff" mean?
What language does "Pfaff" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Pfaff", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).