thymus

\ti.mys\

/\ti.mys\/ noun

The verdict

“thymus” is uncommon French (frequency #72,791 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#72,791
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Organe lymphoïde situé dans le médiastin, entre le sternum et la trachée, qui sert de lieu de maturation aux lymphocytes T et joue un rôle dans la protection contre l’auto-immunité. Très développé ...

Corpus desk

Index FR-thymus · thymus · French

thymus · rank #72,791 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #72,791
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH threat

Nearest frequency peer: threat (-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 « thymus »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for thymus
PropertyValue
Headwordthymus
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ti.mys\
Letters6
Frequency rank#72,791
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « thymus » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.thymustombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « threat » (#72,790), « thief » (#72,789), « théâtraux » (#72,793). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « thymus » est au #72,791. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

thymus is uncommon French at frequency #72,791 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ti.mys\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for thymus in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is thymus, spelled T-H-Y-M-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Organe lymphoïde situé dans le médiastin, entre le sternum et la trachée, qui sert de lieu de maturation aux lymphocytes T et joue un rôle dans la protection contre l’auto-immunité. Très développé pendant l’enfance, son volume décroît après la deuxième année de la vie.
  2. 2
    Ris de veau ou d’agneau.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. On a rencontré […] des thymus anormaux par leur persistance et leur volume chez des tuberculeux et des syphilitiques […]
  2. Le thymus, qui est formé chez le nouveau-né et le jeune enfant de deux lobes aplatis débordant en haut du sternum, s’atrophie avec la progression de l’âge […]

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 "thymus"?
"thymus" is spelled T-H-Y-M-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ti.mys\.
What does "thymus" mean?
As a noun, "thymus" means: Organe lymphoïde situé dans le médiastin, entre le sternum et la trachée, qui sert de lieu de maturation aux lymphocytes T et joue un rôle dans la protection contre l’auto-immunité. Très développé ...
How do you pronounce "thymus"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "thymus" is \ti.mys\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "thymus" come from?
"thymus" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "thymus", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list