rat volant
\ʁa vɔ.lɑ̃\
The verdict
“rat volant” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom donné à diverses chauves-souris du genre Myopterus endémique de l’Afrique et du genre Megaderma.
Corpus desk
Index FR-rat-volant · rat volant · French
rat volant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rat volant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʁa vɔ.lɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « rat volant » en français
Rare enough to double-check
rat volant is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʁa vɔ.lɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for rat volant, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is rat volant, spelled R-A-T- -V-O-L-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Nom donné à diverses chauves-souris du genre Myopterus endémique de l’Afrique et du genre Megaderma.
- 2Nom parfois donné aux polatouches, ou écureuil volant.
- 3Nom parfois donné au pigeon, tant les dégâts et gène qu'il occasionne dans certaines villes le font comparé à un rat.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how rat volant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le rat volant n’entre pas dans les maisons, tandis que la chauve-souris se met dans le toit.
RAT VOLANT. ( Mamm . ) Nom donné par quelques auteurs aux polatouches, et ce nom a aussi été attribué par Daubenton à une chauve-souris, type du genre Myoptère de M. Geoffroy. Le rat volant de Ternate, de Séba, est une autre chauve-souris du genre Mégaderme.
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.