buffoon
/bəˈfuːn/noun, verb
buffoon is spelled B-U-F-F-O-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is bafoon: about 680 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Buffoon is a noun meaning “One who performs in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool”. The plural of buffoon is buffoons.
How many letters and syllables are in buffoon?
| Letters | 7: B-U-F-F-O-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,998th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, bafoon, about 680 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell buffoon?
Buffoon is spelled B-U-F-F-O-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for buffoon in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is buffoon?
Buffoon appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce buffoon?
- /bəˈfuːn/
Buffoon has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-buffoon.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of buffoon
- buffoons plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- buffooning participle, present
- buffooned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does buffoon mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
One who performs in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
- 2
derogatoryAn unintentionally ridiculous person.
verb
- 1
To behave like a buffoon
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Buffoon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bouffon |
| German | Hanswurst, Kasper , Narr, Närrin , kaspern, herumkaspern |
| Portuguese | palhaço, bufão |
| Spanish | bufón |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does buffoon come from?
From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone (“jester”), from buffare (“to puff out the cheeks”), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Middle High German buffen ("to puff"; > German büffen), Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). More at English puff.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).