nouveau riche
/ˌnuː.vəʊ ˈɹiːʃ/
"nouveau-riche" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nouveau riche” 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) - New money; wealthy persons whose fortunes are newly acquired, and who are therefore perceived to lack the refinement of those who were raised wealthy.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nouveau-riche · nouveau riche · English
nouveau riche · 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 "N" 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 | nouveau riche |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌnuː.vəʊ ˈɹiːʃ/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “nouveau riche” in English
Rare enough to double-check
nouveau riche is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌnuː.vəʊ ˈɹiːʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "New money; wealthy persons whose fortunes are newly acquired, and who are therefore perceived to lack the refinement of those who were raised wealthy.".
No misspelling variants are generated for nouveau riche in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: An unadapted borrowing from French nouveau riche (literally “new rich”). The correct English form is nouveau riche, spelled N-O-U-V-E-A-U- -R-I-C-H-E.
Definition
- 1New money; wealthy persons whose fortunes are newly acquired, and who are therefore perceived to lack the refinement of those who were raised wealthy.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nouveau riche appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You must find your opening at Paris. I wish you to spend a year in the capital, and live, not extravagantly, like a nouveau riche, but in a way not unsuited to your rank, and permitting you all the social advantages that belong to it.
Twenty-four hours later we were both in the vast halls of the Winter Palace in full uniform, as bedizened with gold as a nouveau riche’s drawing-room.
Etymology
An unadapted borrowing from French nouveau riche (literally “new rich”).
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.