porphyre

\pɔʁ.fiʁ\

/\pɔʁ.fiʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“porphyre” is uncommon French (frequency #54,172 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,172
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom donné au granite contenant de grands cristaux d’orthose, formés en profondeur.

Corpus desk

Index FR-porphyre · porphyre · French

porphyre · rank #54,172 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,172
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH Ponzi

Nearest frequency peer: Ponzi (-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 « porphyre »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for porphyre
PropertyValue
Headwordporphyre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔʁ.fiʁ\
Letters8
Frequency rank#54,172
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « porphyre » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).porphyretombe 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: « Ponzi » (#54,171), « positionnées » (#54,173), « ponctués » (#54,170). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « porphyre » est au #54,172. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

porphyre is uncommon French at frequency #54,172 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔʁ.fiʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Nom donné au granite contenant de grands cristaux d’orthose, formés en profondeur.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for porphyre, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No explicit etymology string is stored 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 porphyre, spelled P-O-R-P-H-Y-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom donné au granite contenant de grands cristaux d’orthose, formés en profondeur.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’était un temple, une tour, une Babel gigantesque bâtie en porphyre pâle, teinté très-délicatement de cette nuance indécise qu’on appelle « vert d’eau. »
  2. Les alluvions anciennes […] sont essentiellement formées d’un sable quartzeux dans la masse duquel on rencontre du gravier et des cailloux roulés de nature variable : porphyre pétrosiliceux, brèche, granite à amphibole des Ballons, porphyrites et quartzites, celles-ci provenant du démantèlement des poudingues de grès.

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 "porphyre"?
"porphyre" is spelled P-O-R-P-H-Y-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔʁ.fiʁ\.
What does "porphyre" mean?
As a noun, "porphyre" means: Nom donné au granite contenant de grands cristaux d’orthose, formés en profondeur.
How do you pronounce "porphyre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "porphyre" is \pɔʁ.fiʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "porphyre" come from?
"porphyre" 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 "porphyre", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list