pic

/\pik\/ noun

Letters

3 characters

Frequency Rank

#5,593

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

pic is aFrenchnoun. It means: Oiseau grimpeur se nourrissant de larves qu’il va chercher dans l’écorce en la frappant par des coups de bec répétés pour tester la résonance du bois (martèlement) ; communiquant également avec ses... Pronounced \pik\. It ranks #5,593 in French word frequency. Often confused with pu and PS.

Key facts for pic
PropertyValue
Headwordpic
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pik\
Letters3
Frequency rank#5,593
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of pic in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for pic is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pik\. Corpus data places it at rank #5,593 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for pic in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PS", "PQ", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is pic, spelled P-I-C, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Oiseau grimpeur se nourrissant de larves qu’il va chercher dans l’écorce en la frappant par des coups de bec répétés pour tester la résonance du bois (martèlement) ; communiquant également avec ses congénères par ce moyen (tambourinage) et creusant son nid dans un tronc d’arbre.
  2. 2
    Pivert.
  3. 3
    Nom normalisé donné à 26 genres comprenant 201 espèces d’oiseaux grimpeurs et insectivores de la famille des picidés (ordre des piciformes) caractérisés par leur aptitude à grimper le long du tronc des arbres à l’aide de leurs pattes zygodactyles, par leur bec droit et robuste avec lequel ils perforent l’écorce et le liber des arbres par tambourinage, en quête de larves d’insectes, de fourmis et autres insectes xylophages ou xylophiles, et par leur os hyoïde très long qui amarre leur très longue langue et qui aide à amortir les chocs répétitifs du bec contre l’arbre et protéger ainsi contre le stress crânien ; les picidés sont distribués partout dans le monde sauf en Australasie, à Madagascar et en Antarctique (genres principaux: Picus, Melanerpes, Celeus, Veniliornis, Campephilus, etc.).

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #5,593 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pic"?
"pic" is spelled P-I-C. The IPA pronunciation is \pik\.
What does "pic" mean?
As a noun, "pic" means: Oiseau grimpeur se nourrissant de larves qu’il va chercher dans l’écorce en la frappant par des coups de bec répétés pour tester la résonance du bois (martèlement) ; communiquant également avec ses...
What words are commonly confused with "pic"?
"pic" 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 "pic"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pic" is \pik\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pic" come from?
"pic" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.