boubou
\bu.bu\
The verdict
“boubou” is uncommon French (frequency #51,316 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,316
- frequency rank, French
- 4,251
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Vêtement traditionnel africain, long et très ample, aussi bien porté par des hommes que par des femmes.
Corpus desk
Index FR-boubou · boubou · French
boubou · rank #51,316 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,316
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,251
- PHOTO-FINISH boudent
Nearest frequency peer: boudent (+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 « boubou »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- blasés
blasés
48,688 corpus weight
- blin
blin
48,687 corpus weight
- boubou
boubou
48,685 corpus weight
- boudent
boudent
48,684 corpus weight
- bouleversent
bouleversent
48,683 corpus weight
- BPM
BPM
48,682 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « boubou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | boubou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bu.bu\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #51,316 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « boubou » en français
Rare enough to double-check
boubou is uncommon French at frequency #51,316 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \bu.bu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
boubou doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is boubou, spelled B-O-U-B-O-U.
Definition
- 1Vêtement traditionnel africain, long et très ample, aussi bien porté par des hommes que par des femmes.
- 2Les Africains, les Noirs eux-mêmes.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how boubou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Chez Hédiard, dans le quartier des boutiques chic de la Ville Nouvelle, une femme noire en boubou est entrée. Immédiatement, l’œil de la gérante se transforme en couteau, surveillance sans répit de cette cliente qu’on soupçonne en plus de s’être trompée de magasin, qui ne sent pas qu’elle n’est pas à sa place.
Un groupe d’enfants jouaient avec la guenon apprivoisée d’un Flamand efféminé, un habitant de l’impasse qui se faisait appeler Fifi, et qui ne portait que des chemises en pagne et des boubous africains. — (Gaël Faye, Petit Pays, Grasset, 2016, pages 108–109).
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); 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 "boubou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).