rare
\ʁaʁ\
The verdict
“rare” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,785. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,785
- frequency rank, French
- 5,742
- “R” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est en petit nombre ; qui se trouve difficilement.
Corpus desk
Index FR-rare · rare · French
rare · rank #1,785 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,785
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,742
- PHOTO-FINISH publiques
Nearest frequency peer: publiques (-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.
Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « rare »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- pensez
pensez
98,219 corpus weight
- phase
phase
98,218 corpus weight
- publiques
publiques
98,217 corpus weight
- rare
rare
98,216 corpus weight
- soins
soins
98,215 corpus weight
- sois
sois
98,214 corpus weight
What this shows « rare » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rare |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ʁaʁ\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,785 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « rare »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around rare (IPA \ʁaʁ\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,785 among 5,742 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for rare, with forms such as "arre", "raer", and "rarre". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Re", "rue", "ray", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
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 rare, spelled R-A-R-E.
Definition
- 1Qui est en petit nombre ; qui se trouve difficilement.
- 2Qui est peu commun, peu courant.
- 3Qualifie une personne qui a un mérite extraordinaire.
- 4Qualifie une barbe clairsemée.
- 5Qualifie du pouls, lorsqu’il bat moins de fois qu'à l'ordinaire, dans un temps donné.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how rare appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Dans toute cette région agricole, les arbres sont très clairsemés; on n’y trouve guère que quelques rares plantations de figuiers et de nopals.
C’est eux également qui importèrent le poivre, condiment devenu si rare, qu’on l’utilisa comme monnaie.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- arre
- raer
- rarre
- rrae
- rrare
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rare - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "rare"?
What does "rare" mean?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "rare", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).