vacillant
\va.si.jɑ̃\
The verdict
“vacillant” is uncommon French (frequency #95,433 among 2,061 “V” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #95,433
- frequency rank, French
- 2,061
- “V” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui vacille.
Corpus desk
Index FR-vacillant · vacillant · French
vacillant · rank #95,433 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #95,433
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,061
- PHOTO-FINISH utilis
Nearest frequency peer: utilis (-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 « vacillant »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- usque
usque
4,571 corpus weight
- usurpations
usurpations
4,570 corpus weight
- utilis
utilis
4,569 corpus weight
- vacillant
vacillant
4,568 corpus weight
- vantail
vantail
4,567 corpus weight
- vaseuse
vaseuse
4,566 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « vacillant » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | vacillant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \va.si.jɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #95,433 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « vacillant » en français
Rare enough to double-check
vacillant is uncommon French at frequency #95,433 among 2,061 “V” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \va.si.jɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
vacillant has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is vacillant, spelled V-A-C-I-L-L-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Qui vacille.
- 2Qui est incertain, irrésolu, chancelant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how vacillant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Tous tenaient à la main droite ou des épées, ou des piques, ou des arquebuses, et quelques-uns, à la main gauche, des flambeaux qui répandaient sur cette scène un jour funèbre et vacillant.
L’image de Clarisse se dressa, confuse et douloureuse, comme au fond d’une petite chapelle ornée de cierges vacillants près desquels il irait prier de temps en temps.
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 "vacillant"?
What does "vacillant" mean?
How do you pronounce "vacillant"?
What language does "vacillant" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "vacillant", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).