rare

/\ʁaʁ\/ adj

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#1,785

in French word usage

Misspellings

5

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

rare is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui est en petit nombre ; qui se trouve difficilement. Pronounced \ʁaʁ\. It ranks #1,785 in French word frequency. Often confused with Re and rue.

Key facts for rare
PropertyValue
Headwordrare
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\ʁaʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,785
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of rare in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for rare is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁaʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,785 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for rare, with forms such as "arre", "raer", and "rarre". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, 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, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is rare, spelled R-A-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est en petit nombre ; qui se trouve difficilement.
  2. 2
    Qui est peu commun, peu courant.
  3. 3
    Qualifie une personne qui a un mérite extraordinaire.
  4. 4
    Qualifie une barbe clairsemée.
  5. 5
    Qualifie du pouls, lorsqu’il bat moins de fois qu'à l'ordinaire, dans un temps donné.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: arre,raer,rarre,rrae,rrare

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for rare

Misspelling Variants of "rare"

arre4raer4rarre5rrae4rrare5
Misspelling Variants of "rare"

Frequency rank: #1,785 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "rare"?
"rare" is spelled R-A-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁaʁ\.
What does "rare" mean?
As an adj, "rare" means: Qui est en petit nombre ; qui se trouve difficilement.
What words are commonly confused with "rare"?
"rare" is commonly confused with "Re", "rue", "ray". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "rare"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rare" is \ʁaʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rare" come from?
"rare" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.