bougie

\bu.ʒi\

/\bu.ʒi\/ noun

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

The verdict

“bougie” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #12,112. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#12,112
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Chandelle de cire, de stéarine, de paraffine, servant d’éclairage ou utilisée dans certains rites religieux.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bougie · bougie · French

bougie · rank #12,112 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,112
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bienveillance

Nearest frequency peer: bienveillance (-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 « bougie »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « bougie » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bougie vs boule
67% similar
bougie vs Bowie
50% similar
bougie vs bouse
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bougie
PropertyValue
Headwordbougie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bu.ʒi\
Letters6
Frequency rank#12,112
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « bougie »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).bougiese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bienveillance » (#12,111), « Beyrouth » (#12,110), « boycott » (#12,114). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bougie » est au #12,112. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around bougie (IPA \bu.ʒi\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #12,112 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for bougie, with forms such as "bbougie", "boguie", and "bougei". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "boule", "Bowie", "bouse", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is bougie, spelled B-O-U-G-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Chandelle de cire, de stéarine, de paraffine, servant d’éclairage ou utilisée dans certains rites religieux.
  2. 2
    Sonde flexible ou rigide utilisée en chirurgie pour explorer ou dilater un canal de l’organisme (œsophage, rectum, etc.). En l'utilisant on effectue un bougirage.
  3. 3
    Filtre en céramique microporeuse dont la forme est cylindrique (d'où son nom). On l'utilise pour rendre l'eau potable.
  4. 4
    Bougie d’allumage ou bougie de préchauffage.
  5. 5
    Ancienne unité de mesure de l’intensité lumineuse, égale à 1,018 candela.
  6. 6
    Année, an (âge).
  7. 7
    Drôle de personnage.
  8. 8
    Guetteur surveillant l’arrivée du passeur à l’aéroport et prévenant les trafiquants si ce dernier est bloqué en douane.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. On appelle généralement bougies, des chandelles autres que celles qui sont faites avec du suif ; les bougies prennent ensuite différens noms, selon leur forme, leur grosseur ou leur usage. — (Louis Sébastien Lenormand, Manuel du chandelier, du cirier et du fabricant de cire à cacheter, nouvelle édition considérablement augmentée, tant pour le texte que po…
  2. Enfin il faisait si peu de vent que les bougies allumées sur la table à jouer montraient leurs flammes tranquilles, quoique les croisées fussent entr’ouvertes.

Synonyms

chandelleciergesondecathéterbougie de démarrageguszig

This word in other languages

candle(English)bujía(Español)Kerze(Deutsch)vela(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbougie
  • boguie
  • bougei
  • bouggie
  • bouige
  • buogie
  • obugie

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bougie - 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.

bbougie1boguie2bougei2bouggie1bouige2buogie2obugie2
Edit distance from "bougie"

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 "bougie"?
"bougie" is spelled B-O-U-G-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \bu.ʒi\.
What does "bougie" mean?
As a noun, "bougie" means: Chandelle de cire, de stéarine, de paraffine, servant d’éclairage ou utilisée dans certains rites religieux.
What words are commonly confused with "bougie"?
"bougie" is commonly confused with "boule", "Bowie", "bouse". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bougie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bougie" is \bu.ʒi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bougie" come from?
"bougie" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "bougie", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

bâtons#12,117Ariane#12,102Annecy#12,097adieux#12,092

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

clous7 variantsaidés7 variantsÉmile7 variantshabile7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list