planchette

\plɑ̃.ʃɛt\

/\plɑ̃.ʃɛt\/ noun

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

The verdict

“planchette” is uncommon French (frequency #74,282 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#74,282
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

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

Corpus desk

Index FR-planchette · planchette · French

planchette · rank #74,282 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #74,282
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pitreries

Nearest frequency peer: pitreries (-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 « planchette »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « planchette » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for planchette
PropertyValue
Headwordplanchette
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\plɑ̃.ʃɛt\
Letters10
Frequency rank#74,282
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « planchette » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.planchettetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « pitreries » (#74,281), « plébiscitent » (#74,283), « pinay » (#74,280). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « planchette » est au #74,282. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

planchette is uncommon French at frequency #74,282 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \plɑ̃.ʃɛt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for planchette, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

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 planchette, spelled P-L-A-N-C-H-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petite planche.
  2. 2
    Planche à dessin montée sur un trépied, propre à lever des plans, et qui consiste en une planche unie sur laquelle on pose une règle que l’on dirige successivement vers les objets que l’on veut relever.
  3. 3
    Sorte d’ouija permettant de communiquer avec les esprits.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’était le métier de mon grand-père. Il avait des plantations près de la Garonne, et une petite menuiserie pour faire des cagettes. Toutes ces planchettes, ces clous, pour un gosse, c’était le paradis !
  2. La planchette représentée (Pl. d’arpent. fig. 31. n. 2.), consiste en un parallelogramme de bois, long d’environ quinze pouces, & large de douze, entouré d’un chassis de buis, par le moyen duquel on attache une feuille de papier bien étendue, & pour ainsi dire bien collée sur la planchette, de sorte que l’on peut tirer exactement dessus toutes les lignes…

Synonyms

goniographe

This word in other languages

planchette(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 "planchette"?
"planchette" is spelled P-L-A-N-C-H-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \plɑ̃.ʃɛt\.
What does "planchette" mean?
As a noun, "planchette" means: Petite planche.
How do you pronounce "planchette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "planchette" is \plɑ̃.ʃɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "planchette" come from?
"planchette" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "planchette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

pencherais#74,271pauvrement#74,270prospectif#74,299parachutés#74,264

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list