bête de somme
\bɛt də sɔm\
The verdict
“bête de somme” 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) - Animal qui porte ou tire une charge.
Corpus desk
Index FR-bete-de-somme · bête de somme · French
bête de somme · 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 de somme |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bɛt də sɔm\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « bête de somme » en français
Rare enough to double-check
bête de somme is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \bɛt də sɔm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Animal qui porte ou tire une charge.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for bête de somme, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is bête de somme, spelled B-Ê-T-E- -D-E- -S-O-M-M-E.
Definition
- 1Animal qui porte ou tire une charge.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bête de somme appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ils n’osèrent pas, en effet, atteler devant nous les chrétiens qui s’étaient munis de cordes, et ils les forcèrent seulement de nous accompagner jusqu’au sommet […] « Un jour viendra où vous ne serez plus attelés comme des bêtes de somme. Prenez patience et espérez. »
Mais si l’exactitude est la politesse des rois, elle n’est pas assurément une vertu des caravaniers marocains. À huit heures et demie les bêtes de somme ne sont pas encore arrivées.
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.