svelte

\svɛlt\

/\svɛlt\/ adj

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

The verdict

“svelte” is uncommon French (frequency #50,533 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,533
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est mince, élancé, dégagé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-svelte · svelte · French

svelte · rank #50,533 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,533
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH survolent

Nearest frequency peer: survolent (-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 « svelte »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for svelte
PropertyValue
Headwordsvelte
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\svɛlt\
Letters6
Frequency rank#50,533
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « svelte » en français

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « survolent » (#50,532), « sénatorial » (#50,534), « taguer » (#50,535). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « svelte » est au #50,533. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

svelte is uncommon French at frequency #50,533 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \svɛlt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui est mince, élancé, dégagé.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for svelte, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is svelte, spelled S-V-E-L-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est mince, élancé, dégagé.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. On ne pouvait rien voir de plus gracieux que cette svelte blondine, jeune, gaie, folâtre ; pas un homme qui eût résisté à ses agaceries.
  2. Il s’élança avec furie contre l’inconnu, dont la taille très-svelte et très-mince ne semblait pas annoncer la force incroyable qu’il déployait.

Synonyms

minceélancémaigreétroit

Antonyms

groslarge

This word in other languages

svelte(English)esbelto(Español)schlank(Deutsch)

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 "svelte"?
"svelte" is spelled S-V-E-L-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \svɛlt\.
What does "svelte" mean?
As an adjective, "svelte" means: Qui est mince, élancé, dégagé.
How do you pronounce "svelte"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "svelte" is \svɛlt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "svelte" come from?
"svelte" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "svelte", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

taguer#50,535stylée#50,529teints#50,538Thorez#50,544

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list