bièvre

\bjɛvʁ\

/\bjɛvʁ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bièvre” is uncommon French (frequency #51,311 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,311
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ancien nom donné au castor d’Europe.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bievre · bièvre · French

bièvre · rank #51,311 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,311
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH birdie

Nearest frequency peer: birdie (-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 « bièvre »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « bièvre » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for bièvre
PropertyValue
Headwordbièvre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bjɛvʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#51,311
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bièvre » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).bièvretombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « birdie » (#51,310), « blacklist » (#51,312), « billot » (#51,309). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bièvre » est au #51,311. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bièvre is uncommon French at frequency #51,311 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \bjɛvʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

bièvre has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is bièvre, spelled B-I-È-V-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ancien nom donné au castor d’Europe.
  2. 2
    Voir castor.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Entre les animaux à quatre pieds, les bièvres & les loutres sont les premiers dont on ait commencé à manger les jours maigres. […]. Guillaume Durand qui écrivoit sur la fin du treizième siècle, est le premier Théologien qui permette de manger du bièvre ; encore faut-il remarquer qu’il ne permet d’en manger que la queue, & non pas le reste de la bête. Ce q…
  2. Maintenant, il est vrai, le Rhône avec ses affluents est le seul fleuve en France qui nourrisse des bièvres , on en tue de temps en temps auprès d’Arles et de Beaucaire et on peut prévoir l’époque où ils disparaîtront tout à fait, car on leur fait une chasse active […].

This word in other languages

beaver(English)

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

How do you spell "bièvre"?
"bièvre" is spelled B-I-È-V-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \bjɛvʁ\.
What does "bièvre" mean?
As a noun, "bièvre" means: Ancien nom donné au castor d’Europe.
How do you pronounce "bièvre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bièvre" is \bjɛvʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bièvre" come from?
"bièvre" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bièvre", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

birdie#51,310billot#51,309blasés#51,313boubou#51,316

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list