avoir le vent en poupe

\a.vwaʁ lə vɑ̃ ɑ̃ pup\

/\a.vwaʁ lə vɑ̃ ɑ̃ pup\/ verb

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

The verdict

“avoir le vent en poupe” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
22
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Avoir de la chance, réussir ce que l’on fait ; être secondé, favorisé par les circonstances.

Key facts for avoir le vent en poupe
PropertyValue
Headwordavoir le vent en poupe
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\a.vwaʁ lə vɑ̃ ɑ̃ pup\
Letters22
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “avoir le vent en poupe” sits in French frequency

avoir le vent en poupe falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for avoir le vent en poupe is 22 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \a.vwaʁ lə vɑ̃ ɑ̃ pup\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

avoir le vent en poupe doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is avoir le vent en poupe, spelled A-V-O-I-R- -L-E- -V-E-N-T- -E-N- -P-O-U-P-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Avoir de la chance, réussir ce que l’on fait ; être secondé, favorisé par les circonstances.
  2. 2
    Être bien vu dans la société, dans une entreprise, dans le monde politique.

Synonyms

avoir de la chanceréussiraller de l’avantêtre dans le vertêtre en vue

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

How do you spell "avoir le vent en poupe"?
"avoir le vent en poupe" is spelled A-V-O-I-R- -L-E- -V-E-N-T- -E-N- -P-O-U-P-E. The IPA pronunciation is \a.vwaʁ lə vɑ̃ ɑ̃ pup\.
What does "avoir le vent en poupe" mean?
As a verb, "avoir le vent en poupe" means: Avoir de la chance, réussir ce que l’on fait ; être secondé, favorisé par les circonstances.
How do you pronounce "avoir le vent en poupe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "avoir le vent en poupe" is \a.vwaʁ lə vɑ̃ ɑ̃ pup\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "avoir le vent en poupe" come from?
"avoir le vent en poupe" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Using “avoir le vent en poupe”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is A-V-O-I-R- -L-E- -V-E-N-T- -E-N- -P-O-U-P-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \a.vwaʁ lə vɑ̃ ɑ̃ pup\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list