coup d'état
/ˌku deɪˈtɑ/
"coup-d-etat" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“coup d'état” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The sudden overthrow of a government, differing from a revolution by being carried out by a small group of people who replace only the leading figures.
Corpus desk
Index EN-coup-d-etat · coup d'état · English
coup d'état · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" 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 | coup d'état |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌku deɪˈtɑ/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “coup d'état” in English
Rare enough to double-check
coup d'état is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌku deɪˈtɑ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The sudden overthrow of a government, differing from a revolution by being carried out by a small group of people who replace only the leading figures.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for coup d'état, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unadapted borrowing from French coup d'État (literally “strike (or blow or cut) of state”). The correct English form is coup d'état, spelled C-O-U-P- -D-'-É-T-A-T.
Definition
- 1The sudden overthrow of a government, differing from a revolution by being carried out by a small group of people who replace only the leading figures.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how coup d'état appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and some of his closest allies are among dozens of people formally accused by federal police of being part of a criminal conspiracy designed to obliterate Brazil’s democratic system through a rightwing coup d’état.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French coup d'État (literally “strike (or blow or cut) of state”).
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.