photon
\fɔ.tɔ̃\
The verdict
“photon” is uncommon French (frequency #50,415 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,415
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Quantum de l'énergie électromagnétique, regardé comme une particule discontinue ayant une masse nulle, sans charge électrique, et une durée de vie illimitée.
Corpus desk
Index FR-photon · photon · French
photon · rank #50,415 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,415
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH Philémon
Nearest frequency peer: Philémon (-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 « photon »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- perpétrées
perpétrées
49,589 corpus weight
- peul
peul
49,588 corpus weight
- Philémon
Philémon
49,587 corpus weight
- photon
photon
49,586 corpus weight
- pil
pil
49,585 corpus weight
- pincé
pincé
49,584 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « photon » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | photon |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fɔ.tɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #50,415 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « photon » en français
Rare enough to double-check
photon is uncommon French at frequency #50,415 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \fɔ.tɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Quantum de l'énergie électromagnétique, regardé comme une particule discontinue ayant une masse nulle, sans charge électrique, et une durée de vie illimitée.".
No misspelling variants are generated for photon in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is photon, spelled P-H-O-T-O-N.
Definition
- 1Quantum de l'énergie électromagnétique, regardé comme une particule discontinue ayant une masse nulle, sans charge électrique, et une durée de vie illimitée.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how photon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ces grains de lumière, que Einstein appelait « quanta de lumière », nous les appelons aujourd’hui « photons ».
L’effet photovoltaïque se manifeste lorsqu’un semi-conducteur absorbe de la lumière. En acceptant l’énergie des photons, les électrons de la bande de valence des semi-conducteurs passent dans la bande de conduction et créent ainsi des paires électron-trou.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "photon", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).