rapide comme l’éclair
\ʁa.pid kɔm le.klɛʁ\
The verdict
“rapide comme l’éclair” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 21
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Très prompt, qui va vite.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rapide comme l’éclair |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ʁa.pid kɔm le.klɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 21 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rapide comme l’éclair” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for rapide comme l’éclair is 21 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁa.pid kɔm le.klɛʁ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Très prompt, qui va vite.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for rapide comme l’éclair, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is rapide comme l’éclair, spelled R-A-P-I-D-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -L-’-É-C-L-A-I-R.
Definition
- 1Très prompt, qui va vite.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “rapide comme l’éclair”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is R-A-P-I-D-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -L-’-É-C-L-A-I-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʁa.pid kɔm le.klɛʁ\ (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
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.