belle-sœur
\bɛl.sœʁ\
The verdict
“belle-sœur” 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) - Sœur du conjoint ou de la conjointe.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | belle-sœur |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bɛl.sœʁ\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “belle-sœur” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for belle-sœur is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bɛl.sœʁ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for belle-sœur, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is belle-sœur, spelled B-E-L-L-E---S-Œ-U-R.
Definition
- 1Sœur du conjoint ou de la conjointe.
- 2Épouse du frère ou de la sœur.
- 3Tout parent féminin en liaison généalogique par une séquence quelconque de liens de fraternité et d’alliance, comme par exemple la conjointe du beau-frère, ou de la belle-sœur, c’est-à-dire l’épouse du frère ou de la sœur du conjoint.
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-sœur”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-E-L-L-E---S-Œ-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bɛl.sœʁ\ (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.