bateau-mouche

\ba.to.muʃ\

/\ba.to.muʃ\/ noun

The verdict

“bateau-mouche” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bateau de tourisme fluvial opérant à Paris et appartenant à la société « Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches ».

Corpus desk

Index FR-bateau-mouche · bateau-mouche · French

bateau-mouche · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-7 7 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for bateau-mouche
PropertyValue
Headwordbateau-mouche
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ba.to.muʃ\
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bateau-mouche » en français

bateau-mouchen'entre pas dans le top 100.000 du français: zone de termes techniques, archaïques ou rares.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bateau-mouche is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ba.to.muʃ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Bateau de tourisme fluvial opérant à Paris et appartenant à la société « Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches ».".

bateau-mouche doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is bateau-mouche, spelled B-A-T-E-A-U---M-O-U-C-H-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bateau de tourisme fluvial opérant à Paris et appartenant à la société « Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches ».

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il ajouta, dans un rire plus fort, une vieille plaisanterie que tout le ministère trouvait délicieuse : — « Il ne faudrait pas les envoyer par eau inspecter la station navale du Point-du-Jour, ils seraient malades sur les bateaux-mouches. »
  2. À cet instant, le bateau-mouche est apparu. Il glissait vers la pointe de l’île, sa guirlande de projecteurs braquée sur les maisons des quais.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bateau-mouche"?
"bateau-mouche" is spelled B-A-T-E-A-U---M-O-U-C-H-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.to.muʃ\.
What does "bateau-mouche" mean?
As a noun, "bateau-mouche" means: Bateau de tourisme fluvial opérant à Paris et appartenant à la société « Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches ».
How do you pronounce "bateau-mouche"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bateau-mouche" is \ba.to.muʃ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bateau-mouche" come from?
"bateau-mouche" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list