polyéthylène

\pɔ.li.e.ti.lɛn\

/\pɔ.li.e.ti.lɛn\/ noun

The verdict

“polyéthylène” is uncommon French (frequency #51,666 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,666
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Polymère d'éthylène.

Corpus desk

Index FR-polyethylene · polyéthylène · French

polyéthylène · rank #51,666 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,666
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH polygones

Nearest frequency peer: polygones (-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 « polyéthylène »

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 « polyéthylène » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for polyéthylène
PropertyValue
Headwordpolyéthylène
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔ.li.e.ti.lɛn\
Letters12
Frequency rank#51,666
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « polyéthylène » en français

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « polygones » (#51,665), « poncelet » (#51,667), « pluspart » (#51,664). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « polyéthylène » est au #51,666. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

polyéthylène is uncommon French at frequency #51,666 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔ.li.e.ti.lɛn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Polymère d'éthylène.".

No misspelling variants are generated for polyéthylène in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is polyéthylène, spelled P-O-L-Y-É-T-H-Y-L-È-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Polymère d'éthylène.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. L’hypocondriaque y trouvera des huiles de silicone anti-mousse qui vous déglinguent le foie, des cires en polyéthylène pour enrober les agrumes qui exigeraient qu’on se lave les mains après avoir manipulé les fruits en question, des agents de turbidité (dans les boissons) pouvant provoquer des fausses couches, du sel d’aspartame capable de déclencher des…
  2. L’entreprise va investir 3 milliards d’euros pour construire un « craqueur » qui transformera de l’éthane de schiste américain en éthylène, substance de base pour la production du polyéthylène, donc des granulés de plastique.

Synonyms

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

How do you spell "polyéthylène"?
"polyéthylène" is spelled P-O-L-Y-É-T-H-Y-L-È-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔ.li.e.ti.lɛn\.
What does "polyéthylène" mean?
As a noun, "polyéthylène" means: Polymère d'éthylène.
How do you pronounce "polyéthylène"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "polyéthylène" is \pɔ.li.e.ti.lɛn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "polyéthylène" come from?
"polyéthylène" 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 "polyéthylène", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list