fourchette
/fɔːˈʃɛt/noun
fourchette is a noun meaning “A fork-shaped structure, specifically the fold of skin where the labia minora meet above the perineum (the frenulum labiorum pudendi)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-U-R-C-H-E-T-T-E and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 56 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of fourchette is fourchettes.
What does fourchette mean?
noun
- 1
A fork-shaped structure, specifically the fold of skin where the labia minora meet above the perineum (the frenulum labiorum pudendi).
- 2
A fork-shaped instrument or device, specifically the forked structure between two fingers of a glove.
- 3
An instrument used to raise and support the tongue during the cutting of the frenulum.
- 4
The wishbone or furculum of birds
- 5
The frog of the hoof of the horse and allied animals.
- 6
The combination of the card immediately above and the one immediately below a given card.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce fourchette?
- UK /fɔːˈʃɛt/
Fourchette has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fourchette.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of fourchette
- fourchettes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is fourchette?
Fourchette appears about once in every 56 million words in written English, the 234,209th 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).
Where does fourchette come from?
Borrowed from French fourchette.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).