belle-mère
\bɛl mɛʁ\
The verdict
“belle-mère” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Mère d'un des époux par rapport à l’autre conjoint.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | belle-mère |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bɛl mɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “belle-mère” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for belle-mère is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bɛl mɛʁ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
belle-mère has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is belle-mère, spelled B-E-L-L-E---M-È-R-E.
Definition
- 1Mère d'un des époux par rapport à l’autre conjoint.
- 2Pour les enfants d’union(s) précédente(s), la nouvelle épouse de l'un de leurs parents.
- 3Germaine, marâtre; en politique, un ex-politicien qui continue à vouloir exercer une influence sur les actions de ses successeurs à travers ses opinions et interventions publiques ou de coulisse.
- 4Grande attache à papier en fil de fer plié.
- 5Remorque
- 6Lorsqu’un le tissu à coudre est trop épais, chute de tissu positionnée sous le pied de biche de la machine à coudre pour mettre le pied de biche à l’horizontale et faciliter la couture.
Synonyms
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “belle-mère”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-E-L-L-E---M-È-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bɛl mɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.