Rafah

\ʁa.fa\

/\ʁa.fa\/ name

The verdict

“Rafah” is uncommon French (frequency #86,083 among 5,742 “R” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#86,083
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ville palestinienne située dans le sud de la bande de Gaza, à la frontière égyptienne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-rafah · Rafah · French

Rafah · rank #86,083 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #86,083
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH Raiden

Nearest frequency peer: Raiden (+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 « Rafah »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Rafah
PropertyValue
HeadwordRafah
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\ʁa.fa\
Letters5
Frequency rank#86,083
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « Rafah » en français

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Raiden » (#86,084), « raclettes » (#86,081), « raideurs » (#86,085). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « Rafah » est au #86,083. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Rafah is uncommon French at frequency #86,083 among 5,742 “R” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \ʁa.fa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Rafah has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is Rafah, spelled R-A-F-A-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ville palestinienne située dans le sud de la bande de Gaza, à la frontière égyptienne.
  2. 2
    Poste-frontière entre Israël et le sud de la bande de Gaza.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Officiellement, l’Égypte n’a pas commenté la situation à Rafah, mais des « sources haut placées dans l’appareil sécuritaire » ont affirmé à une télévision proche des renseignements égyptiens que le pays « refuse l’installation des Gazaouis dans le Sinaï ».
  2. Après le nord de la bande de Gaza puis les féroces combats à Khan Younès (dans le tiers sud de la bande de Gaza), direction l’extrême sud et la ville de Rafah, où s’entassent plus de 1,3 million de personnes ayant fui les combats, selon l’ONU, sur une population de 2,4 millions d’habitants à Gaza.

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 "Rafah"?
"Rafah" is spelled R-A-F-A-H. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁa.fa\.
What does "Rafah" mean?
As a proper noun, "Rafah" means: Ville palestinienne située dans le sud de la bande de Gaza, à la frontière égyptienne.
How do you pronounce "Rafah"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Rafah" is \ʁa.fa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Rafah" come from?
"Rafah" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "Rafah", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list