polyphonie

\pɔ.li.fɔ.ni\

/\pɔ.li.fɔ.ni\/ noun

The verdict

“polyphonie” is uncommon French (frequency #54,168 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,168
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Superposition organisée de plusieurs lignes mélodiques indépendantes dans une composition musicale.

Corpus desk

Index FR-polyphonie · polyphonie · French

polyphonie · rank #54,168 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,168
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH polygame

Nearest frequency peer: polygame (-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 « polyphonie »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for polyphonie
PropertyValue
Headwordpolyphonie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔ.li.fɔ.ni\
Letters10
Frequency rank#54,168
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « polyphonie » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).polyphonietombe 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: « polygame » (#54,167), « ponctuent » (#54,169), « pollard » (#54,166). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « polyphonie » est au #54,168. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

polyphonie is uncommon French at frequency #54,168 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔ.li.fɔ.ni\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for polyphonie, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is polyphonie, spelled P-O-L-Y-P-H-O-N-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Superposition organisée de plusieurs lignes mélodiques indépendantes dans une composition musicale.
  2. 2
    Présence simultanée de plusieurs voix, points de vue ou instances énonciatives dans un discours, produisant un effet de diversité ou de confrontation.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. La vraie question : comment accorder la durée des beautés musicales avec la mutabilité du langage musical ? - Exemples de celle-ci : le plain-chant, la polyphonie chorale de la Renaissance, les révolutions modernes de l'harmonie.

Antonyms

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 "polyphonie"?
"polyphonie" is spelled P-O-L-Y-P-H-O-N-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔ.li.fɔ.ni\.
What does "polyphonie" mean?
As a noun, "polyphonie" means: Superposition organisée de plusieurs lignes mélodiques indépendantes dans une composition musicale.
How do you pronounce "polyphonie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "polyphonie" is \pɔ.li.fɔ.ni\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "polyphonie" come from?
"polyphonie" 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 "polyphonie", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list