tardy
The verdict
“tardy” is uncommon French (frequency #55,638 among 164,488 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,638
- frequency rank, French
- 164,488
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tardif.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tardy |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #55,638 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tardy” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tardy is uncommon French at frequency #55,638 among 164,488 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Tardif.".
tardy has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is tardy, spelled T-A-R-D-Y.
Definition
- 1Tardif.
Synonyms
Antonyms
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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Using “tardy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is T-A-R-D-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.