bougie

/\bu.ʒi\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#12,112

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

bougie is aFrenchnoun. It means: Chandelle de cire, de stéarine, de paraffine, servant d’éclairage ou utilisée dans certains rites religieux. Pronounced \bu.ʒi\. Often confused with boule and Bowie.

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)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of bougie in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for bougie is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bu.ʒi\. Corpus data places it at rank #12,112 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for bougie, with forms such as "bbougie", "boguie", and "bougei". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, 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, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is bougie, spelled B-O-U-G-I-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

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.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: bbougie,boguie,bougei,bouggie,bouige,buogie,obugie

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bougie

Misspelling Variants of "bougie"

bbougie7boguie6bougei6bouggie7bouige6buogie6obugie6
Misspelling Variants of "bougie"

Frequency rank: #12,112 in French

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. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.