tartan
\taʁ.tɑ̃\
The verdict
“tartan” is uncommon French (frequency #55,639 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,639
- frequency rank, French
- 3,703
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Étoffe de laine à carreaux de diverses couleurs, qui est très employée en Écosse.
Corpus desk
Index FR-tartan · tartan · French
tartan · rank #55,639 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,639
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,703
- PHOTO-FINISH tardy
Nearest frequency peer: tardy (-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 « tartan »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- tapée
tapée
44,365 corpus weight
- tardy
tardy
44,363 corpus weight
- tartan
tartan
44,362 corpus weight
- tartiflette
tartiflette
44,361 corpus weight
- Taïwanaise
Taïwanaise
44,360 corpus weight
- temporiser
temporiser
44,359 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « tartan » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tartan |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \taʁ.tɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #55,639 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « tartan » en français
Rare enough to double-check
tartan is uncommon French at frequency #55,639 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \taʁ.tɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for tartan in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is tartan, spelled T-A-R-T-A-N.
Definition
- 1Étoffe de laine à carreaux de diverses couleurs, qui est très employée en Écosse.
- 2Vêtement ou châle fait de cette étoffe.
- 3Matériau à base de polyuréthane servant essentiellement à réaliser des pistes pour des épreuves sportives.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tartan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La femme qui accompagnait le Maître d’école était vieille, assez proprement vêtue d’une robe brune, d’un tartan à carreaux rouges et noirs, et d’un bonnet blanc.
Elle étale sur ses genoux pointus un petit tartan écossais ; puis l’aide à enfiler des gants de fil noir.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tartan", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).