bouillabaisse
/ˈbuːjəˌbeɪs/
"bouillabaisse" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bouillabaisse” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A type of fish soup or stew from Provence, France.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bouillabaisse · bouillabaisse · English
bouillabaisse · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bouillabaisse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbuːjəˌbeɪs/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bouillabaisse” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bouillabaisse is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbuːjəˌbeɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for bouillabaisse, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French bouillabaisse, from Occitan bolhabaissa, bouiabaisso, possibly a compound of bolhir (“to boil”) + abaissar (“to lower (the temperature)”). The correct English form is bouillabaisse, spelled B-O-U-I-L-L-A-B-A-I-S-S-E.
Definition
- 1A type of fish soup or stew from Provence, France.
- 2A mixture.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bouillabaisse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And here's an inn, not rich and splendid, / But still in comfortable case; / The which in youth I oft attended, / To eat a bowl of Bouillabaisse. // This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is— / A sort of soup, or broth, or brew, / Or hotchpotch of all sorts of fishes, / That Greenwich never could outdo; / Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffern, / Soles, onio…
First of all they dined together at a delightful little Franco-Italian pothouse near Leicester Square, where they had bouillabaisse (imagine the Laird's delight), and spaghetti, and a poulet rôti, which is such a different affair from a roast fowl!
Etymology
Borrowed from French bouillabaisse, from Occitan bolhabaissa, bouiabaisso, possibly a compound of bolhir (“to boil”) + abaissar (“to lower (the temperature)”).
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.