enfant terrible
"enfant-terrible" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“enfant terrible” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An unconventional badly-behaved person who causes embarrassment or shock to others.
Corpus desk
Index EN-enfant-terrible · enfant terrible · English
enfant terrible · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" 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 | enfant terrible |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “enfant terrible” in English
Rare enough to double-check
enfant terrible is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for enfant terrible in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (literally “terrible child”). The correct English form is enfant terrible, spelled E-N-F-A-N-T- -T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1An unconventional badly-behaved person who causes embarrassment or shock to others.
- 2An unusually successful person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, or avant-garde.
- 3A wild child.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how enfant terrible appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He was soon the talk of the town, the enfant terrible of our little world.
Diplomatists have no right to complain of mere lies; it is their own fault, if, educated as they are, the lies deceive them; but they complain bitterly of traps. Palmerston was believed to lay traps. He was the enfant terrible of the British Government.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (literally “terrible child”).
Synonyms
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.