nouveau riche
/ˌnuː.vəʊ ˈɹiːʃ/
"nouveau-riche" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nouveau riche” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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.
| 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) |
Where “nouveau riche” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nouveau riche is 13 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌnuː.vəʊ ˈɹiːʃ/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “nouveau riche”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-O-U-V-E-A-U- -R-I-C-H-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌnuː.vəʊ ˈɹiːʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.