bagatelle

Name: bagatelle, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

\ba.ɡa.tɛl\

/\ba.ɡa.tɛl\/ noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“bagatelle” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #29,239. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#29,239
frequency rank, French: 4,251
“B” headwords: 11
tracked misspellings

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Chose de peu de prix et peu nécessaire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bagatelle · bagatelle · French

bagatelle · rank #29,239 · 11 variants · 0 confusables

FREQ-MID #29,239
LEN-LONG 9 letters
VOW-4 4 vowels
CONFUS-0 No pairs
VAR-MID 11 variants
BOOK-MID 4,251
PHOTO-FINISH bactérienne

Nearest frequency peer: bactérienne (-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.

avi

70,765
aviser

70,764
bactérienne

70,763
bagatelle

70,762
baisée

70,761
Balladur

70,760

What this shows « bagatelle » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Key facts for bagatelle
Property	Value
Headword	bagatelle
Language	French
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	\ba.ɡa.tɛl\
Letters	9
Frequency rank	#29,239
Misspellings tracked	11
Confusable pairs	0
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « bagatelle »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).bagatellese place ici:

#29,239

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bactérienne » (#29,238), « baisée » (#29,240), « aviser » (#29,237). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bagatelle » est au #29,239. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around bagatelle (IPA \ba.ɡa.tɛl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #29,239 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for bagatelle, with forms such as "abgatelle", "baagtelle", and "bagaetlle". 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 is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is bagatelle, spelled B-A-G-A-T-E-L-L-E.

Definition

1
Chose de peu de prix et peu nécessaire.
2
Chose frivole et de peu d’importance.
3
Choses qui n’ont pas toute l’importance, toute la gravité qu’on leur suppose.
4
Amourette ou acte de faire l’amour.
5
Exclamation, pour exprimer le doute, l’incertitude, ou pour marquer le peu de cas que l’on fait d’une menace.
6
Meurtre ou assassinat. Expression d’origine sicilienne signifiant la liquidation d’une « taupe » ou d’un « moineau ».
7
Composition brève, simple et légère.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

Il dépense tout son argent en bagatelles.
Il m’a fait présent de quelques bagatelles.

This word in other languages

bagatelle(English)bagatela(Español)Bagatelle(Deutsch)bagatela(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

abgatelle
baagtelle
bagaetlle
bagatele
bagatelel
bagatlele
bagattelle
baggatelle
bagtaelle
bbagatelle
bgaatelle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bagatelle - 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.

Edit distance from "bagatelle"

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 "bagatelle"?

"bagatelle" is spelled B-A-G-A-T-E-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.ɡa.tɛl\.

What does "bagatelle" mean?

As a noun, "bagatelle" means: Chose de peu de prix et peu nécessaire.

What are common misspellings of "bagatelle"?

Common misspellings include "abgatelle", "baagtelle", "bagaetlle", "bagatele", "bagatelel". The correct spelling is "bagatelle".

How do you pronounce "bagatelle"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bagatelle" is \ba.ɡa.tɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "bagatelle" come from?

"bagatelle" 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 "bagatelle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Beauchamp#29,246 astucieux#29,231 biographe#29,247 astreinte#29,230

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

brisant11 variants adoptive11 variants yorkaise11 variants coffrets11 variants