varan
\va.ʁɑ̃\
The verdict
“varan” is uncommon French (frequency #84,410 among 2,061 “V” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,410
- frequency rank, French
- 2,061
- “V” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de grand lézard de la famille des varanidés.
Corpus desk
Index FR-varan · varan · French
varan · rank #84,410 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #84,410
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,061
- PHOTO-FINISH vantardise
Nearest frequency peer: vantardise (-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 « varan »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- valeureuse
valeureuse
15,594 corpus weight
- valseuses
valseuses
15,593 corpus weight
- vantardise
vantardise
15,592 corpus weight
- varan
varan
15,591 corpus weight
- varga
varga
15,590 corpus weight
- varoise
varoise
15,589 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « varan » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | varan |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \va.ʁɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #84,410 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « varan » en français
Rare enough to double-check
varan is uncommon French at frequency #84,410 among 2,061 “V” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \va.ʁɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sorte de grand lézard de la famille des varanidés.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for varan in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is varan, spelled V-A-R-A-N.
Definition
- 1Sorte de grand lézard de la famille des varanidés.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how varan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Depuis sa naissance, elle était le souffre-douleur de ses monstrueux frères. Ils ne voulaient pas s’en encombrer quand ils jouaient à la guerre ou partaient chasser le varan. Et les Hugo non plus d’ailleurs, quand ils leur arrivaient de s’amuser ensemble, l’union des mâles se faisant alors naturellement.
C’était l’endroit même où la veille, au cours d’une excursion en bateau, j’avais vu des alcyons, des nuées de roussettes, des hordes de singes et des pygargues à queue blanche, des flamants se promenant parmi les lotus et les orchidées et sur des bancs de sable ombragés, des varans assoupis, un air de jardin d’Eden où l’homme brillait par son absence.
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 "varan", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).