aigu

\e.ɡy\

/\e.ɡy\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“aigu” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #14,595) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#14,595
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui a un aspect pointu, tranchant, voire déchirant.

Corpus desk

Index FR-aigu · aigu · French

aigu · rank #14,595 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #14,595
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH agité

Nearest frequency peer: agité (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « aigu »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « aigu » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

aigu vs au
50% similar
aigu vs air
50% similar
aigu vs ait
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for aigu
PropertyValue
Headwordaigu
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\e.ɡy\
Letters4
Frequency rank#14,595
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « aigu »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).aiguse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « agité » (#14,594), « Alaska » (#14,596), « affaiblir » (#14,593). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « aigu » est au #14,595. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for aigu is neighbouring look-alikes ("au", "air", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \e.ɡy\. Frequency #14,595 among 6,727 “A” headwords. 8 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for aigu, with forms such as "agiu", "aiggu", and "aiug". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "au", "air", "ait", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is aigu, spelled A-I-G-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui a un aspect pointu, tranchant, voire déchirant.
  2. 2
    Qui se présente de manière soudaine et forte.
  3. 3
    Qui possède un son élevé et perçant.
  4. 4
    Sons qui avoisinent la limite extrême et élevée de l’échelle musicale.
  5. 5
    Se dit d’un angle dont la mesure n’excède pas 90°.
  6. 6
    Dont l’évolution est rapide et qui se termine en peu de temps par la mort ou la guérison.
  7. 7
    Qui est perçant, pénétrant.
  8. 8
    Se dit de feuilles qui se terminent en pointe.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how aigu appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le bord aigu de la table risque de blesser les petits.
  2. Un javelot aigu.

Synonyms

acutpointu

Antonyms

épaislentgraveobtuschronique

This word in other languages

sharp(English)agudo(Español)schrill(Deutsch)estridente(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • agiu
  • aiggu
  • aiug
  • iagu

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of aigu - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

agiu2aiggu1aiug2iagu2
Edit distance from "aigu"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "aigu"?
"aigu" is spelled A-I-G-U. The IPA pronunciation is \e.ɡy\.
What does "aigu" mean?
As an adjective, "aigu" means: Qui a un aspect pointu, tranchant, voire déchirant.
What words are commonly confused with "aigu"?
"aigu" is commonly confused with "au", "air", "ait". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "aigu"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "aigu" is \e.ɡy\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "aigu" come from?
"aigu" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "aigu", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

wade#14,580vita#14,578chen#14,631paca#14,529

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list