bel-esprit
\bɛ.l‿ɛs.pʁi\
The verdict
“bel-esprit” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Celui qui affecte de l’esprit, ou affiche celui qu’il a.
Corpus desk
Index FR-bel-esprit · bel-esprit · French
bel-esprit · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bel-esprit |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bɛ.l‿ɛs.pʁi\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « bel-esprit » en français
Rare enough to double-check
bel-esprit is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \bɛ.l‿ɛs.pʁi\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for bel-esprit, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is bel-esprit, spelled B-E-L---E-S-P-R-I-T.
Definition
- 1Celui qui affecte de l’esprit, ou affiche celui qu’il a.
- 2Écrivain très spirituel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bel-esprit appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
De pareilles bévues ne font-elles pas plus de honte aux prétendus beaux-esprits qui les mettent en avant, qu’aux artistes qu’on voudrait ainsi ravaler ?
[…] : les prétendus beaux-esprits qui se trouvent parmi eux ne sont que de pitoyables bavards que le plus petit philosophe crotté; qui court les rues de Paris , mettrait à quia.
This word in other languages
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.