ruche
/ɹuːʃ/noun, verb
ruche is a noun meaning “A strip of fabric which has been fluted or pleated” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-U-C-H-E, and it appears about once in every 48 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of ruche is ruches.
What does ruche mean?
noun
- 1
A strip of fabric which has been fluted or pleated.
- 2
A small ruff of fluted or pleated fabric worn at neck or wrist.
- 3
A pile of arched tiles, used to catch and retain oyster spawn.
verb
- 1
To flute or pleat (fabric).
ruched curtains
- 2
To bunch up (fabric); to ruck up.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce ruche?
- /ɹuːʃ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ruche.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ruche
- ruches plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- ruching participle, present
- ruched participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is ruche?
Ruche appears about once in every 48 million words in written English, the 214,628th 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).
Ruche in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense fluted or pleated fabric:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Rüsche |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ruche come from?
Borrowed from French ruche, from Middle French rusche, from Old French rusche, from Early Medieval Latin rusca (“bark”), borrowed from Gaulish rūsca, from Proto-Celtic *rūskos (“bark”), from *rukskos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rewk- (“to dig up”), from *Hrew- (“to tear out, dig out”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).