zaïre
\za.iʁ\
The verdict
“zaïre” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #29,601 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #29,601
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Unité monétaire introduite en 1967 en République démocratique du Congo (remplaçant le franc congolais) jusqu’en 1993 (remplacée à son tour par le nouveau zaïre). Le zaïre se divisait en 100 makuta ...
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 | zaïre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \za.iʁ\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #29,601 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “zaïre” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for zaïre is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \za.iʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #29,601 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Unité monétaire introduite en 1967 en République démocratique du Congo (remplaçant le franc congolais) jusqu’en 1993 (remplacée à son tour par le nouveau zaïre). Le zaïre se divisait en 100 makuta ...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for zaïre, with forms such as "azïre", "zarïe", and "zaïer". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "zara", "zappé", "zèbre", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is zaïre, spelled Z-A-Ï-R-E.
Definition
- 1Unité monétaire introduite en 1967 en République démocratique du Congo (remplaçant le franc congolais) jusqu’en 1993 (remplacée à son tour par le nouveau zaïre). Le zaïre se divisait en 100 makuta et 10,000 sengi. Le symbole était Z ou Ƶ, le code ISO 4217 ZRZ.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: azïre,zarïe,zaïer,zaïrre,zzaïre,zïare
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of zaïre - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "zaïre"?
What does "zaïre" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "zaïre"?
How do you pronounce "zaïre"?
What language does "zaïre" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “zaïre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is Z-A-Ï-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \za.iʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “zara” - see the side-by-side comparison. zaïre vs zara
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.