spina

\spi.na\

/\spi.na\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“spina” is uncommon French (frequency #60,390 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,390
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dans le cirque, mur central peu élevé, autour duquel tournaient les chars.

Corpus desk

Index FR-spina · spina · French

spina · rank #60,390 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,390
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sourie

Nearest frequency peer: sourie (-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 « spina »

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 « spina » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for spina
PropertyValue
Headwordspina
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\spi.na\
Letters5
Frequency rank#60,390
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « spina » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).spinatombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « sourie » (#60,389), « spoon » (#60,391), « stabilisés » (#60,392). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « spina » est au #60,390. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

spina is uncommon French at frequency #60,390 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \spi.na\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

spina doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is spina, spelled S-P-I-N-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dans le cirque, mur central peu élevé, autour duquel tournaient les chars.
  2. 2
    Renfort longitudinal de bois au milieu d’un bouclier celte.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Formé d’un grand ovale oblong, l’hippodrome est séparé en deux parties par un muret central, la spina, longue de plus de deux cents mètres.
  2. À Rome, l’obélisque en syénite situé au centre de la place du Vatican avait été transporté d’Héliopolis par Caligula pour décorer la spina du cirque de Néron.

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 "spina"?
"spina" is spelled S-P-I-N-A. The IPA pronunciation is \spi.na\.
What does "spina" mean?
As a noun, "spina" means: Dans le cirque, mur central peu élevé, autour duquel tournaient les chars.
How do you pronounce "spina"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spina" is \spi.na\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "spina" come from?
"spina" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

spoon#60,391Souad#60,386Sidon#60,376segpa#60,369

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list