balayage
\ba.le.jaʒ\
The verdict
“balayage” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #21,863 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #21,863
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Action de balayer.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | balayage |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ba.le.jaʒ\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #21,863 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “balayage” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for balayage is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ba.le.jaʒ\. Corpus data places it at rank #21,863 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Action de balayer.
- 2Déchets qui ont été balayés.
- 3Examen systématique d'un sujet.
- 4Parcours systématique d’une surface.
- 5En technologie radar, exploration d’une zone à l'aide d’un faisceau électromagnétique.
- 6Application, en fines mèches et à un centimètre environ de la racine, d’un produit qui éclaircit la couleur naturelle des cheveux.
- 7Technique 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.
- 8Salaire du balayeur.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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.
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"?
What does "balayage" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "balayage"?
How do you pronounce "balayage"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “balayage”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-A-L-A-Y-A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ba.le.jaʒ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “balaye” - see the side-by-side comparison. balayage vs balaye
- 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.