belette

\bə.lɛt\

/\bə.lɛt\/ noun

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

The verdict

“belette” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #46,023. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#46,023
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit mammifère carnassier, de forme effilée et de couleur rousse, qui a le museau pointu et les pattes courtes (Mustela nivalis).

Corpus desk

Index FR-belette · belette · French

belette · rank #46,023 · 8 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #46,023
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH belote

Nearest frequency peer: belote (+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 « belette »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « belette » 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).

belette vs bette
71% similar
belette vs belote
71% similar
belette vs buvette
71% similar

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

Key facts for belette
PropertyValue
Headwordbelette
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bə.lɛt\
Letters7
Frequency rank#46,023
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « belette »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.belettese place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « belote » (#46,024), « battles » (#46,021), « besace » (#46,025). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « belette » est au #46,023. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around belette (IPA \bə.lɛt\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #46,023 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for belette, with forms such as "bbelette", "beeltte", and "belete". 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 also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "bette", "belote", "buvette", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is belette, spelled B-E-L-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit mammifère carnassier, de forme effilée et de couleur rousse, qui a le museau pointu et les pattes courtes (Mustela nivalis).
  2. 2
    Jeune fille ou jeune femme charmante.
  3. 3
    Fille naïve et idiote, féminin argotique de « blaireau ».
  4. 4
    Curieux, personne curieuse.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Autour de la chambre, le long de la plinthe, des belettes courent, bondissent, se poursuivent…
  2. Le long des murs de ma chambre, des belettes se poursuivaient, bondissaient, se livraient à des jeux obscènes…

Synonyms

belette d’Europebelette pygméepetite belette

This word in other languages

weasel(English)comadreja(Español)Wiesel(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbelette
  • beeltte
  • belete
  • beletet
  • bellette
  • beltete
  • bleette
  • eblette

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of belette - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

bbelette1beeltte2belete1beletet2bellette1beltete2bleette2eblette2
Edit distance from "belette"

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 "belette"?
"belette" is spelled B-E-L-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \bə.lɛt\.
What does "belette" mean?
As a noun, "belette" means: Petit mammifère carnassier, de forme effilée et de couleur rousse, qui a le museau pointu et les pattes courtes (Mustela nivalis).
What words are commonly confused with "belette"?
"belette" is commonly confused with "bette", "belote", "buvette". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "belette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "belette" is \bə.lɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "belette" come from?
"belette" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "belette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

battles#46,021birmans#46,027blondin#46,029Bagneux#46,016

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

belote8 variantsbesace8 variantsbougon8 variantsaffable8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list