porte-traîne

\pɔʁ.tə.tʁɛːn\

/\pɔʁ.tə.tʁɛːn\/ noun

The verdict

“porte-traîne” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Genre d'oiseaux-mouches nectarivores comprenant deux espèces de la sous-famille des trochilinés à long relativement court et incurvé, à plumage iridescent vert émeraude, à très longue queue profond...

Corpus desk

Index FR-porte-traine · porte-traîne · French

porte-traîne · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for porte-traîne
PropertyValue
Headwordporte-traîne
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔʁ.tə.tʁɛːn\
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “porte-traîne” sits in French frequency

porte-traîne falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

porte-traîne is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔʁ.tə.tʁɛːn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Genre d'oiseaux-mouches nectarivores comprenant deux espèces de la sous-famille des trochilinés à long relativement court et incurvé, à plumage iridescent vert émeraude, à très longue queue profond...".

Zero misspellings are on record for porte-traîne in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is porte-traîne, spelled P-O-R-T-E---T-R-A-Î-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Genre d'oiseaux-mouches nectarivores comprenant deux espèces de la sous-famille des trochilinés à long relativement court et incurvé, à plumage iridescent vert émeraude, à très longue queue profondément fourchue dû aux longueurs étagées des rectrices, les deux rectrices les plus externes étant les plus longues et pouvant former jusqu'à 75 à 80% de la longueur totale de l'oiseau mâle, et que l'on retrouve dans la forêt de nuage néotropicale et dans les forêts montagneuses humides de plus basse altitude (genre Lesbia).

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "porte-traîne"?
"porte-traîne" is spelled P-O-R-T-E---T-R-A-Î-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔʁ.tə.tʁɛːn\.
What does "porte-traîne" mean?
As a noun, "porte-traîne" means: Genre d'oiseaux-mouches nectarivores comprenant deux espèces de la sous-famille des trochilinés à long relativement court et incurvé, à plumage iridescent vert émeraude, à très longue queue profond...
How do you pronounce "porte-traîne"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "porte-traîne" is \pɔʁ.tə.tʁɛːn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "porte-traîne" come from?
"porte-traîne" 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.
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