xylophone

\ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn\

/\ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“xylophone” is uncommon French (frequency #67,977 among 62 “X” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,977
frequency rank, French
62
“X” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Instrument de musique à percussion composé de lamelles de tailles et d’épaisseurs variables qui forment un clavier sur lequel on frappe avec une mailloche.

Corpus desk

Index FR-xylophone · xylophone · French

xylophone · rank #67,977 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,977
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 62
  • PHOTO-FINISH Yassin

Nearest frequency peer: Yassin (+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 « xylophone »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for xylophone
PropertyValue
Headwordxylophone
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn\
Letters9
Frequency rank#67,977
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « xylophone » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).xylophonetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « Yassin » (#67,978), « wrestling » (#67,975), « Winona » (#67,973). Parmi 62 lemmes en « X », « xylophone » est au #67,977. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

xylophone is uncommon French at frequency #67,977 among 62 “X” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Instrument de musique à percussion composé de lamelles de tailles et d’épaisseurs variables qui forment un clavier sur lequel on frappe avec une mailloche.".

No misspelling variants are generated for xylophone in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is xylophone, spelled X-Y-L-O-P-H-O-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Instrument de musique à percussion composé de lamelles de tailles et d’épaisseurs variables qui forment un clavier sur lequel on frappe avec une mailloche.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Bruno tentait d’utiliser ses contacts à l’hôpital où il travaillait pour lui obtenir un rendez-vous avec un psychiatre, mais c’était comme d’essayer de trouver un chien qui jouerait du xylophone.
  2. La dernière fois, on a eu un compositeur de musique électronique qu est venu louer un balafon [une sorte de xylophone] pour enregistrer un sample.

Synonyms

xyloclaqueboisxilocordéon

This word in other languages

xylophone(English)xilófono(Español)Xylophon(Deutsch)

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 "xylophone"?
"xylophone" is spelled X-Y-L-O-P-H-O-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn\.
What does "xylophone" mean?
As a noun, "xylophone" means: Instrument de musique à percussion composé de lamelles de tailles et d’épaisseurs variables qui forment un clavier sur lequel on frappe avec une mailloche.
How do you pronounce "xylophone"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "xylophone" is \ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "xylophone" come from?
"xylophone" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "xylophone", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

wrestling#67,975échelonne#67,985Wahhabite#67,967éliminera#67,989

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list