timbale
\tɛ̃.bal\
The verdict
“timbale” is uncommon French (frequency #66,382 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,382
- frequency rank, French
- 3,703
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de tambour composé d’un demi-globe de métal sur lequel est tendue une peau dont la tension est réglable.
Corpus desk
Index FR-timbale · timbale · French
timbale · rank #66,382 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #66,382
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,703
- PHOTO-FINISH Thuin
Nearest frequency peer: Thuin (-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 « timbale »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- TFT
TFT
33,623 corpus weight
- Thuin
Thuin
33,620 corpus weight
- timbale
timbale
33,619 corpus weight
- tirets
tirets
33,618 corpus weight
- titrait
titrait
33,617 corpus weight
- titrées
titrées
33,616 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « timbale » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | timbale |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \tɛ̃.bal\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #66,382 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « timbale » en français
Rare enough to double-check
timbale is uncommon French at frequency #66,382 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \tɛ̃.bal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for timbale in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is timbale, spelled T-I-M-B-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1Sorte de tambour composé d’un demi-globe de métal sur lequel est tendue une peau dont la tension est réglable.
- 2Gobelet de métal, souvent de valeur.
- 3Prix remporté par un ou une candidate lors d'un concours.
- 4Moule de forme circulaire.
- 5Croûte de pâtisserie dans laquelle on sert certains mets accommodés avec une sauce.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how timbale appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les timbales étoient autrefois plus en usage parmi les Alemans & les Espagnols que parmi les François qui ne s’en servoient que quand ils les avoient gagnées sur les ennemis, mais aujourd’hui le Roi en donne à qui il lui plaît & principalement aux compagnies d’ordonnance.
Le roulement de timbale produit un effet surprenant dans le crescendo et le forté d’un orchestre nombreux ; il a quelque chose de mystérieux et de sinistre s’il est fait pianissimo, ou si les timbales sont voilées ….
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 "timbale", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).