bête à cornes
\bɛ.t‿a kɔʁn\
The verdict
“bête à cornes” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bœuf, vache ou chèvre, par opposition aux chevaux, aux brebis et aux moutons.
Corpus desk
Index FR-bete-a-cornes · bête à cornes · French
bête à cornes · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | bête à cornes |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bɛ.t‿a kɔʁn\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « bête à cornes » en français
Rare enough to double-check
bête à cornes is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \bɛ.t‿a kɔʁn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for bête à cornes in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is bête à cornes, spelled B-Ê-T-E- -À- -C-O-R-N-E-S.
Definition
- 1Bœuf, vache ou chèvre, par opposition aux chevaux, aux brebis et aux moutons.
- 2Escargot.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bête à cornes appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Toute bête à cornes au-dessus de l’âge de 2 ans doit être marquée de la marque du village, par l’Inspecteur du bétail établi à cet effet ; & cela sous peine de 5 livres d’amende.
Le nombre des chevaux, alors d’un demi-million, est augmenté de près d’un million et demi, et celui des bêtes à corne d’un million au-delà de trois millions.
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.