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poutine

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "poutine", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "poutine" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "poutine" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

poutine is aEnglishnoun. It means: A dish consisting of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, eaten primarily in Canada. Pronounced /puːˈtiːn/.

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Key facts for poutine
PropertyValue
Headwordpoutine
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/puːˈtiːn/
Letters7
Frequency rank#53,176
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of poutine in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for poutine is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /puːˈtiːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #53,176 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for poutine in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Canadian French poutine (“French fries with cheese curds and gravy; any of various kinds of pudding”); further etymology uncertain, possibly either: * a variant of French pouding (“pudding”), borrowed from English pudding (possibly ultimately … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is poutine, spelled P-O-U-T-I-N-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A dish consisting of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, eaten primarily in Canada.
  2. 2
    Chiefly with a qualifying word: any of a number of variations on the basic poutine dish.

Etymology

Borrowed from Canadian French poutine (“French fries with cheese curds and gravy; any of various kinds of pudding”); further etymology uncertain, possibly either: * a variant of French pouding (“pudding”), borrowed from English pudding (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to swell”)); or * from a dialectal French word influenced by French pouding or English pudding, though this word has not been identified. The Canadian French word is generally thought to have been coined by the Canadian restaurateur Fernand Lachance (1918–2004) as a name for the dish which is said to have been first served at his restaurant Lutin Qui Rit in Warwick, Quebec, in 1957.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #53,176 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "poutine"?
"poutine" is spelled P-O-U-T-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is /puːˈtiːn/.
What does "poutine" mean?
As a noun, "poutine" means: A dish consisting of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, eaten primarily in Canada.
How do you pronounce "poutine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "poutine" is /puːˈtiːn/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "poutine"?
Borrowed from Canadian French poutine (“French fries with cheese curds and gravy; any of various kinds of pudding”); further etymology uncertain, possibly either: * a variant of French pouding (“pudding”), borrowed from English pudding (possibly u... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.