prion
\pʁi.jɔ̃\
The verdict
“prion” is uncommon French (frequency #83,273 among 248,534 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,273
- frequency rank, French
- 248,534
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Protéine qui existe naturellement dans le cerveau des mammifères mais qui devient infectieuse par une conformation particulière, formant des agrégations et des dépôts et détruisant peu à peu les ne...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | prion |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pʁi.jɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #83,273 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prion” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
prion is uncommon French at frequency #83,273 among 248,534 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pʁi.jɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Protéine qui existe naturellement dans le cerveau des mammifères mais qui devient infectieuse par une conformation particulière, formant des agrégations et des dépôts et détruisant peu à peu les ne...".
Zero misspellings are on record for prion in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. 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 its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is prion, spelled P-R-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Protéine qui existe naturellement dans le cerveau des mammifères mais qui devient infectieuse par une conformation particulière, formant des agrégations et des dépôts et détruisant peu à peu les neurones, provoquant à la longue une mort cérébrale.
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
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Using “prion”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-R-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pʁi.jɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.