rire comme une baleine

\ʁiʁ kɔ.m‿yn ba.lɛn\

/\ʁiʁ kɔ.m‿yn ba.lɛn\/ verb

The verdict

“rire comme une baleine” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
22
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Rire en ouvrant la bouche toute grande.

Key facts for rire comme une baleine
PropertyValue
Headwordrire comme une baleine
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ʁiʁ kɔ.m‿yn ba.lɛn\
Letters22
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “rire comme une baleine” sits in French frequency

rire comme une baleine falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for rire comme une baleine is 22 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁiʁ kɔ.m‿yn ba.lɛn\. 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: "Rire en ouvrant la bouche toute grande.".

No misspelling variants are generated for rire comme une baleine in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

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 rire comme une baleine, spelled R-I-R-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -U-N-E- -B-A-L-E-I-N-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Rire en ouvrant la bouche toute grande.

Synonyms

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “rire comme une baleine, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/rire-comme-une-baleine

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "rire comme une baleine"?
"rire comme une baleine" is spelled R-I-R-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -U-N-E- -B-A-L-E-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁiʁ kɔ.m‿yn ba.lɛn\.
What does "rire comme une baleine" mean?
As a verb, "rire comme une baleine" means: Rire en ouvrant la bouche toute grande.
How do you pronounce "rire comme une baleine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rire comme une baleine" is \ʁiʁ kɔ.m‿yn ba.lɛn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rire comme une baleine" come from?
"rire comme une baleine" 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.

Using “rire comme une baleine”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is R-I-R-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -U-N-E- -B-A-L-E-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ʁiʁ kɔ.m‿yn ba.lɛn\ (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

Nearby French words

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

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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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list