za
The verdict
“za” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #30,029) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #30,029
- frequency rank, French
- 240
- “Z” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Syllabe représentant le si bémol dans la solmisation.
Corpus desk
Index FR-za · za · French
za · rank #30,029 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #30,029
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 240
- PHOTO-FINISH Zagreb
Nearest frequency peer: Zagreb (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “za”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Wilkinson
Wilkinson
69,975 corpus weight
- wrong
wrong
69,974 corpus weight
- za
za
69,972 corpus weight
- Zagreb
Zagreb
69,971 corpus weight
- écartées
écartées
69,970 corpus weight
- éclaireurs
éclaireurs
69,969 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “za” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | za |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #30,029 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “za” se place dans la fréquence du français
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for za is neighbouring look-alikes ("zu", "ze", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #30,029 among 240 “Z” headwords. Gloss: "Syllabe représentant le si bémol dans la solmisation.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for za, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "zu", "ze", "zi", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is za, spelled Z-A.
Definition
- 1Syllabe représentant le si bémol dans la solmisation.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how za appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
ZA. — Nom que les symphoniastes modernes ont donné à la note si, seule corde du système ancien qui soit mobile. C'est à raison de cette propriété qu'on l'appelle si ou za, suivant qu'elle se présente à l'état de nature ou à l'état de bémol.
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 "za"?
What does "za" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
What to do next
You've looked up "za". Here's where to go from here.
- "za" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "zu". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #30,029 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "Z" letter cohort. Z–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.