bidou
\bi.du\
The verdict
“bidou” is uncommon French (frequency #71,287 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,287
- frequency rank, French
- 4,251
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Plus jeune des officiers-mariniers d’un carré. Équivaut au midship du carré des officiers.
Corpus desk
Index FR-bidou · bidou · French
bidou · rank #71,287 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,287
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,251
- PHOTO-FINISH Biafra
Nearest frequency peer: Biafra (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rangs de longue queue près de « bidou »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Besnier
Besnier
28,718 corpus weight
- Bessarabie
Bessarabie
28,717 corpus weight
- Biafra
Biafra
28,715 corpus weight
- bidou
bidou
28,714 corpus weight
- bigarrée
bigarrée
28,713 corpus weight
- blessez
blessez
28,711 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « bidou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bidou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bi.du\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #71,287 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « bidou » en français
Rare enough to double-check
bidou is uncommon French at frequency #71,287 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \bi.du\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for bidou in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, 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 bidou, spelled B-I-D-O-U.
Definition
- 1Plus jeune des officiers-mariniers d’un carré. Équivaut au midship du carré des officiers.
- 2Plus jeune élève d’une promotion.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how bidou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le bidou est traditionnellement chargé de souhaiter les anniversaires et d’effacer le tableau.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bidou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).