bête comme un chou

Name: bête comme un chou, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

adj

By PlainSpell Editorial Team · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed May 6, 2026

The verdict

“bête comme un chou” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French: 18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - D’une grande stupidité.

Key facts for bête comme un chou
Property	Value
Headword	bête comme un chou
Language	French
Part of speech	Adjective
Letters	18
Misspellings tracked	0
Confusable pairs	0
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “bête comme un chou” sits in French frequency

bête comme un chou falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for bête comme un chou is 18 letters long, classified as an adjective. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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
D’une grande stupidité.

Synonyms

bête comme ses pieds con comme ses pieds con comme la Lune con comme un manche con comme un balai con comme une valise

This word in other languages

saudumm(Deutsch)

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.

Using “bête comme un chou”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

The one correct French spelling is B-Ê-T-E- -C-O-M-M-E- -U-N- -C-H-O-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
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.