bouffon
\bu.fɔ̃\
The verdict
“bouffon” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #17,886. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #17,886
- frequency rank, French
- 4,251
- “B” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qualifie un genre théâtral du Moyen Âge.
Corpus desk
Index FR-bouffon · bouffon · French
bouffon · rank #17,886 · 8 variants · 13 confusables
- FREQ-MID #17,886
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 13 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,251
- PHOTO-FINISH bikini
Nearest frequency peer: bikini (-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.
Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « bouffon »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- bailey
bailey
82,118 corpus weight
- bikini
bikini
82,116 corpus weight
- bouffon
bouffon
82,115 corpus weight
- bourre
bourre
82,114 corpus weight
- bros
bros
82,113 corpus weight
- brunet
brunet
82,112 corpus weight
What this shows « bouffon » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bouffon |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \bu.fɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #17,886 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « bouffon »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around bouffon (IPA \bu.fɔ̃\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #17,886 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for bouffon, with forms such as "bbouffon", "bofufon", and "bouffno". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "bouton", "Buffon", "boulon", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
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 bouffon, spelled B-O-U-F-F-O-N.
Definition
- 1Qualifie un genre théâtral du Moyen Âge.
- 2Qui fait rire par extrême ridicule.
- 3Qualifie ce qui est comique dans les ouvrages de l’esprit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bouffon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le drame bouffon, la farce, appartiennent plus en propre au moyen-âge, mais encore ici il y a un certain rapport de filiation entre les acteurs des tréteaux du moyen-âge et les derniers histrions de l’antiquité.
La veulerie des hommes de ce temps fut si grande que parfois la substitution du nouveau personnel à l’ancien prenait des allures bouffonnes.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bbouffon
- bofufon
- bouffno
- bouffonn
- boufofn
- boufon
- buoffon
- obuffon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bouffon - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "bouffon"?
What does "bouffon" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "bouffon"?
How do you pronounce "bouffon"?
What language does "bouffon" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bouffon", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).