babouin

\ba.bwɛ̃\

/\ba.bwɛ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“babouin” is uncommon French (frequency #53,150 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,150
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Espèce de singe de la sous-famille des cercopithécinés.

Corpus desk

Index FR-babouin · babouin · French

babouin · rank #53,150 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,150
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH avoua

Nearest frequency peer: avoua (-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 « babouin »

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 « babouin » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for babouin
PropertyValue
Headwordbabouin
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ba.bwɛ̃\
Letters7
Frequency rank#53,150
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « babouin » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.babouintombe 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: « avoua » (#53,149), « balaise » (#53,151), « avicenne » (#53,148). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « babouin » est au #53,150. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

babouin is uncommon French at frequency #53,150 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ba.bwɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.

babouin has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is babouin, spelled B-A-B-O-U-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Espèce de singe de la sous-famille des cercopithécinés.
  2. 2
    Personne considérée comme laide ou agissant de façon ridicule.
  3. 3
    Vieille personne considérée comme laide ou agissant de façon ridicule.
  4. 4
    Figure grotesque des corps-de-garde, que l'on faisait baiser aux soldats par punition ^([3]).
  5. 5
    Petit bouton qui vient aux lèvres après avoir bu dans un verre malpropre.
  6. 6
    Enfant ou jeune adulte étourdi, mal élevé ou qui suscite la honte.
  7. 7
    Lèvres, bouche ^([3]).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Soudain, son sang se figea. Deux yeux de fauves le dévisageait. S'ouvrit une effrayante paire de crocs à travers le pare-brise défoncé : la gueule agressive d'un babouin mâle.
  2. Nous n’avons cité ici à titre d’animaux présentant des traits intelligents que les singes supérieurs, le babouin, le dauphin et l’éléphant.

This word in other languages

baboon(English)babuino(Español)Pavian(Deutsch)babuíno(Português)

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 "babouin"?
"babouin" is spelled B-A-B-O-U-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.bwɛ̃\.
What does "babouin" mean?
As a noun, "babouin" means: Espèce de singe de la sous-famille des cercopithécinés.
How do you pronounce "babouin"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "babouin" is \ba.bwɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "babouin" come from?
"babouin" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

balaise#53,151Barbosa#53,152beretta#53,158augurer#53,141

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list