petit maître
"petit-maitre" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“petit maître” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A fop or dandy.
Corpus desk
Index EN-petit-maitre · petit maître · English
petit maître · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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 | petit maître |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “petit maître” in English
Rare enough to double-check
petit maître is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for petit maître, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French petit-maître. The correct English form is petit maître, spelled P-E-T-I-T- -M-A-Î-T-R-E.
Definition
- 1A fop or dandy.
- 2A lesser master of something, especially of some artistic skill; a minor talent.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how petit maître appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The unfortunate petit maitre, driven to the extremity of his condescension, acknowledged it to be a masterly refinement […].
Monstrous critical overkill of an even more up-market kind has transformed the Argentinian petit maître, Borges, into one of the Great Writers of our Time and his most recent collection, The Book of Sand […] shows signs that he is content humbly to acquiesce in this opinion.
Etymology
From French petit-maître.
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.