babou

\bɐ.bˈoʊ̯\

/\bɐ.bˈoʊ̯\/ verb

The verdict

“babou” is uncommon French (frequency #54,422 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,422
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Troisième personne du singulier du prétérit de babar.

Corpus desk

Index FR-babou · babou · French

babou · rank #54,422 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,422
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH babyloniens

Nearest frequency peer: babyloniens (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « babou »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « babou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for babou
PropertyValue
Headwordbabou
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\bɐ.bˈoʊ̯\
Letters5
Frequency rank#54,422
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « babou » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.baboutombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « babyloniens » (#54,423), « aérée » (#54,420), « barnum » (#54,424). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « babou » est au #54,422. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

babou is uncommon French at frequency #54,422 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \bɐ.bˈoʊ̯\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Troisième personne du singulier du prétérit de babar.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for babou, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is babou, spelled B-A-B-O-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Troisième personne du singulier du prétérit de babar.

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 "babou"?
"babou" is spelled B-A-B-O-U. The IPA pronunciation is \bɐ.bˈoʊ̯\.
What does "babou" mean?
As a verb, "babou" means: Troisième personne du singulier du prétérit de babar.
How do you pronounce "babou"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "babou" is \bɐ.bˈoʊ̯\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "babou" come from?
"babou" 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 "babou", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list