tricycle

\tʁi.sikl\

/\tʁi.sikl\/ noun

The verdict

“tricycle” is uncommon French (frequency #51,792 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,792
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cycle à trois roues.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tricycle · tricycle · French

tricycle · rank #51,792 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,792
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tribuns

Nearest frequency peer: tribuns (-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 « tricycle »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tricycle
PropertyValue
Headwordtricycle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tʁi.sikl\
Letters8
Frequency rank#51,792
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tricycle » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.tricycletombe 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: « tribuns » (#51,791), « transmettez » (#51,790), « Turkestan » (#51,794). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tricycle » est au #51,792. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tricycle is uncommon French at frequency #51,792 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \tʁi.sikl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Cycle à trois roues.".

tricycle doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is tricycle, spelled T-R-I-C-Y-C-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Cycle à trois roues.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La vélocipédie était naturellement de la fête, un tricycle amène deux amateurs munis de leurs engins de pêche.
  2. Non seulement Lesclide profite de la vogue du grand bi, du bicycle et du tricycle pour obtenir l'autorisation de faire paraître son hebdomadaire, mais de plus, le dessin est associé à l'écrit.

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 "tricycle"?
"tricycle" is spelled T-R-I-C-Y-C-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tʁi.sikl\.
What does "tricycle" mean?
As a noun, "tricycle" means: Cycle à trois roues.
How do you pronounce "tricycle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tricycle" is \tʁi.sikl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tricycle" come from?
"tricycle" 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 "tricycle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list