polonium

\pɔ.lɔ.njɔm\

/\pɔ.lɔ.njɔm\/ noun

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

The verdict

“polonium” is uncommon French (frequency #58,840 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,840
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Élément chimique de symbole chimique Po et de numéro atomique 84, naturellement présent à l’état de traces, dont tous les isotopes sont radioactifs et généralement classé parmi les métaux post-tran...

Corpus desk

Index FR-polonium · polonium · French

polonium · rank #58,840 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #58,840
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH poinçons

Nearest frequency peer: poinçons (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “polonium”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “polonium” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for polonium
PropertyValue
Headwordpolonium
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔ.lɔ.njɔm\
Letters8
Frequency rank#58,840
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “polonium” se place dans la fréquence du français

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « poinçons » (#58,839), « plaignais » (#58,838), « polypes » (#58,842). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

polonium is uncommon French at frequency #58,840 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔ.lɔ.njɔm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for polonium in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is polonium, spelled P-O-L-O-N-I-U-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    Élément chimique de symbole chimique Po et de numéro atomique 84, naturellement présent à l’état de traces, dont tous les isotopes sont radioactifs et généralement classé parmi les métaux post-transition.
  2. 2
    Corps simple correspondant à cet élément, métal radioactif, généralement décrit comme argenté et très volatil, utilisé notamment comme source de particules alpha.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dans son livre Pionnier de l’atome, Goldschmidt écrit que la plus forte quantité de polonium jusqu’alors préparé ^([sic]) a été transportée par un officier américain de Montréal à Los Alamos pour servir à la mise au point du détonateur de la bombe atomique « Fat Man ».
  2. Ses opposants — coïncidence — souffrent ou meurent : la journaliste Anna Politkovskaïa a été criblée de balles dans le hall de son immeuble ; Alexandre Litvinenko a été empoisonné au polonium, une substance radioactive, et Alexeï Navalny croupit en prison, coupé du reste du monde.

This word in other languages

polonium(English)polonio(Español)Polonium(Deutsch)polónio(Português)

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 "polonium"?
"polonium" is spelled P-O-L-O-N-I-U-M. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔ.lɔ.njɔm\.
What does "polonium" mean?
As a noun, "polonium" means: Élément chimique de symbole chimique Po et de numéro atomique 84, naturellement présent à l’état de traces, dont tous les isotopes sont radioactifs et généralement classé parmi les métaux post-tran...
How do you pronounce "polonium"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "polonium" is \pɔ.lɔ.njɔm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "polonium" come from?
"polonium" 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 "polonium", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

poinçons#58,839portants#58,847percutée#58,828patienté#58,823

What to do next

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Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list