belle
\bɛl\
The verdict
“belle” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #398 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #398
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Femme qui a de la beauté, de l’agrément, et, d’une manière générale, une femme.
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 | belle |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bɛl\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #398 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “belle” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for belle is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bɛl\. Corpus data places it at rank #398 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for belle, with forms such as "bbelle", "bele", and "belel". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "blé", "blue", "bull", 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 its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is belle, spelled B-E-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Femme qui a de la beauté, de l’agrément, et, d’une manière générale, une femme.
- 2Partie qui doit décider de l’avantage entre deux joueurs ayant eu jusque-là des chances égales.
- 3Embelle.
- 4La liberté, pour le prisonnier.
- 5Petite amie.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbelle,bele,belel,blele,eblle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of belle - 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 "belle"?
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Using “belle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-E-L-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bɛl\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “blé” - see the side-by-side comparison. belle vs blé
- 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.