sarcelle

\saʁ.sɛl\

/\saʁ.sɛl\/ noun

The verdict

“sarcelle” is uncommon French (frequency #84,292 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#84,292
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Oiseau palmipède de la famille des anatidés, canard de surface de petite taille.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sarcelle · sarcelle · French

sarcelle · rank #84,292 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #84,292
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sare

Nearest frequency peer: sare (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « sarcelle »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « sarcelle » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for sarcelle
PropertyValue
Headwordsarcelle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\saʁ.sɛl\
Letters8
Frequency rank#84,292
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « sarcelle » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).sarcelletombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « sare » (#84,293), « sankt » (#84,290), « sauvegardées » (#84,294). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sarcelle » est au #84,292. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sarcelle is uncommon French at frequency #84,292 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \saʁ.sɛl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Oiseau palmipède de la famille des anatidés, canard de surface de petite taille.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for sarcelle in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is sarcelle, spelled S-A-R-C-E-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Oiseau palmipède de la famille des anatidés, canard de surface de petite taille.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how sarcelle appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. C'était le comte qui tuait une sarcelle.
  2. Près des cours d’eau, des étangs, des marécages, on trouve de nombreux Échassiers et Palmipèdes : d’innombrables cigognes, des hérons, des grues, des bécasses, des bécassines, des poules d’eau, des canards, des sarcelles.

Synonyms

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); 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 "sarcelle"?
"sarcelle" is spelled S-A-R-C-E-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \saʁ.sɛl\.
What does "sarcelle" mean?
As a noun, "sarcelle" means: Oiseau palmipède de la famille des anatidés, canard de surface de petite taille.
How do you pronounce "sarcelle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sarcelle" is \saʁ.sɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sarcelle" come from?
"sarcelle" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sarcelle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list