bête comme un chou

adj

The verdict

“bête comme un chou” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - D’une grande stupidité.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bete-comme-un-chou · bête comme un chou · French

bête comme un chou · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 18 letters
  • VOW-7 7 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.

Key facts for bête comme un chou
PropertyValue
Headwordbête comme un chou
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
Letters18
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bête comme un chou » en français

bête comme un choureste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bête comme un chou is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "D’une grande stupidité.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for bête comme un chou in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 bête comme un chou, spelled B-Ê-T-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -U-N- -C-H-O-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    D’une grande stupidité.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Je lui ai expliqué mille fois, le problème est qu’il est bête comme un chou.

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

How do you spell "bête comme un chou"?
"bête comme un chou" is spelled B-Ê-T-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -U-N- -C-H-O-U.
What does "bête comme un chou" mean?
As an adjective, "bête comme un chou" means: D’une grande stupidité.
What language does "bête comme un chou" come from?
"bête comme un chou" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list