balayage

\ba.le.jaʒ\

/\ba.le.jaʒ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“balayage” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #21,863. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#21,863
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de balayer.

Corpus desk

Index FR-balayage · balayage · French

balayage · rank #21,863 · 11 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #21,863
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH B1

Nearest frequency peer: B1 (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « balayage »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

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

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).

balayage vs balaye
75% similar
balayage vs balayée
75% similar
balayage vs balisage
75% similar

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

Key facts for balayage
PropertyValue
Headwordbalayage
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ba.le.jaʒ\
Letters8
Frequency rank#21,863
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « balayage »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « B1 » (#21,862), « aération » (#21,861), « bass » (#21,865). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « balayage » est au #21,863. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around balayage (IPA \ba.le.jaʒ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #21,863 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for balayage, with forms such as "ablayage", "baalyage", and "balaayge". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "balaye", "balayée", "balisage", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is balayage, spelled B-A-L-A-Y-A-G-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de balayer.
  2. 2
    Déchets qui ont été balayés.
  3. 3
    Examen systématique d'un sujet.
  4. 4
    Parcours systématique d’une surface.
  5. 5
    En technologie radar, exploration d’une zone à l'aide d’un faisceau électromagnétique.
  6. 6
    Application, en fines mèches et à un centimètre environ de la racine, d’un produit qui éclaircit la couleur naturelle des cheveux.
  7. 7
    Technique de combat utilisée dans les arts martiaux consistant à déséquilibrer ou à faire chuter l’adversaire. Elle s'opère, à l’aide du pied ou de la jambe, sur la jambe ou section d'appui du dit adversaire.
  8. 8
    Salaire du balayeur.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le balayage est impitoyablement proscrit, les poussières pouvant être mortelles pour les vers à soie.
  2. Il employait maintenant les raclures de routes, les curures de fossés, les cendres et les escarbilles de fourneaux, surtout les déchets de laine, dont il avait acheté le balayage dans une draperie de Châteaudun.

Synonyms

balaiementbalayement

This word in other languages

sweeping(English)barrido(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ablayage
  • baalyage
  • balaayge
  • balayaeg
  • balayagge
  • balaygae
  • balayyage
  • ballayage
  • balyaage
  • bbalayage
  • blaayage

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

ablayage2baalyage2balaayge2balayaeg2balayagge1balaygae2balayyage1ballayage1
Edit distance from "balayage"

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 "balayage"?
"balayage" is spelled B-A-L-A-Y-A-G-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.le.jaʒ\.
What does "balayage" mean?
As a noun, "balayage" means: Action de balayer.
What words are commonly confused with "balayage"?
"balayage" is commonly confused with "balaye", "balayée", "balisage". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "balayage"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "balayage" is \ba.le.jaʒ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "balayage" come from?
"balayage" 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 "balayage", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

aération#21,861bloquant#21,870asphalte#21,855bouchées#21,873

Similar misspelling depth

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

bistrot11 variantsargenté11 variantsBritney11 variantsanormale11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list