tangerine

\tɑ̃.ʒə.ʁin\

/\tɑ̃.ʒə.ʁin\/ noun

The verdict

“tangerine” is uncommon French (frequency #64,123 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#64,123
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Variété de mandarine.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tangerine · tangerine · French

tangerine · rank #64,123 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #64,123
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH taillant

Nearest frequency peer: taillant (-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 « tangerine »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tangerine
PropertyValue
Headwordtangerine
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tɑ̃.ʒə.ʁin\
Letters9
Frequency rank#64,123
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tangerine » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).tangerinetombe 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: « taillant » (#64,122), « tapin » (#64,124), « sélecteur » (#64,121). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tangerine » est au #64,123. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tangerine is uncommon French at frequency #64,123 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \tɑ̃.ʒə.ʁin\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Variété de mandarine.".

tangerine doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is tangerine, spelled T-A-N-G-E-R-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Variété de mandarine.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Je lui dis que Tanger est une ville ou peut-être un pays, que la tangerine est un fruit, la tangente une divergence géométrique.
  2. À côté du matelas, un grand panier rempli à ras bord de tangerines de Kyushu - un cadeau coûteux de la paroisse - libérait ses senteurs divines.

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 "tangerine"?
"tangerine" is spelled T-A-N-G-E-R-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tɑ̃.ʒə.ʁin\.
What does "tangerine" mean?
As a noun, "tangerine" means: Variété de mandarine.
How do you pronounce "tangerine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tangerine" is \tɑ̃.ʒə.ʁin\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tangerine" come from?
"tangerine" 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 "tangerine", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list