syllabus

\si.la.bys\

/\si.la.bys\/ noun

The verdict

“syllabus” is uncommon French (frequency #83,411 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#83,411
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Recueil de questions tranchées par l’autorité papale.

Corpus desk

Index FR-syllabus · syllabus · French

syllabus · rank #83,411 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #83,411
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH swallow

Nearest frequency peer: swallow (-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 « syllabus »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for syllabus
PropertyValue
Headwordsyllabus
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\si.la.bys\
Letters8
Frequency rank#83,411
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « syllabus » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).syllabustombe 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: « swallow » (#83,410), « synthétisée » (#83,412), « svenska » (#83,409). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « syllabus » est au #83,411. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

syllabus is uncommon French at frequency #83,411 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \si.la.bys\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for syllabus, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is syllabus, spelled S-Y-L-L-A-B-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Recueil de questions tranchées par l’autorité papale.
  2. 2
    Photocopies ou imprimés servant de support à un cours d’université.
  3. 3
    Document synoptique dans lequel le contenu d’un enseignement universitaire est présenté sous la forme d’une table des matières commentée.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Si j’avais pu croire que la théologie et la Bible étaient la vérité, aucune des doctrines plus tard groupées dans le Syllabus, et qui, dès lors, étaient plus ou moins promulguées, ne m’eût causé la moindre émotion.
  2. Au lieu d’écrire des Syllabus qui ne peuvent réjouir que des bilieux, chagrineux, chassieux, ces deux chefs de mon Église distribueraient leurs faveurs à celles et à ceux qui sauraient le mieux m’adorer…

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 "syllabus"?
"syllabus" is spelled S-Y-L-L-A-B-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is \si.la.bys\.
What does "syllabus" mean?
As a noun, "syllabus" means: Recueil de questions tranchées par l’autorité papale.
How do you pronounce "syllabus"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "syllabus" is \si.la.bys\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "syllabus" come from?
"syllabus" 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 "syllabus", 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