spica
\spi.ka\
The verdict
“spica” is uncommon French (frequency #85,287 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,287
- frequency rank, French
- 6,032
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de bandage dont les tours se couvrent en partie les uns les autres, comme les rangs d’un épi d’orge.
Corpus desk
Index FR-spica · spica · French
spica · rank #85,287 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,287
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,032
- PHOTO-FINISH spinetta
Nearest frequency peer: spinetta (+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 « spica »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Soudanaises
Soudanaises
14,717 corpus weight
- soulagées
soulagées
14,716 corpus weight
- spica
spica
14,714 corpus weight
- spinetta
spinetta
14,713 corpus weight
- spécialisant
spécialisant
14,712 corpus weight
- sss
sss
14,711 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « spica » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spica |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \spi.ka\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #85,287 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « spica » en français
Rare enough to double-check
spica is uncommon French at frequency #85,287 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \spi.ka\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sorte de bandage dont les tours se couvrent en partie les uns les autres, comme les rangs d’un épi d’orge.".
Zero misspellings are on record for spica in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is spica, spelled S-P-I-C-A.
Definition
- 1Sorte de bandage dont les tours se couvrent en partie les uns les autres, comme les rangs d’un épi d’orge.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how spica appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Par surcroît, craignant qu’à tout bout du champ un quidam n’accourût scrutant mon avant-bras droit, j’y apposai un spica fait d’un collodion agglutinatif (ou sparadrap), à l’instar d’un individu qui, souffrant d’un anthrax ou d’un aiguillon s’incarnant au plus profond, sort d’un hôpital, son bras dans un foulard.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "spica", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).