boule de neige
The verdict
“boule de neige” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun — the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: Neige agglomérée en forme de boule utilisée comme projectile pour les jeux d’enfants.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | boule de neige |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bul də nɛʒ\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “boule de neige” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for boule de neige is 14 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bul də nɛʒ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for boule de neige in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
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 boule de neige, spelled B-O-U-L-E- -D-E- -N-E-I-G-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Neige agglomérée en forme de boule utilisée comme projectile pour les jeux d’enfants.
- 2Objet décoratif qui contient de l’eau et des paillettes de plastique pour représenter la neige.
- 3Variété à fleurs doubles de l’obier (ou viorne obier), appelée aussi caillebotte et pelote de neige.
- 4Nom vulgaire de l’agaric champêtre, dit encore champignon des bruyères.
- 5Synonyme d’agaric des jachères (espèce de champignons).
- 6Conséquence en chaîne d’un événement.
- 7Chou-fleur.
- 8Phrase dont la longueur des mots augmente puis diminue régulièrement, ou poème dont les vers sont croissants puis décroissants.
This word in other languages
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "boule de neige"?
What does "boule de neige" mean?
How do you pronounce "boule de neige"?
What language does "boule de neige" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “boule de neige”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-O-U-L-E- -D-E- -N-E-I-G-E — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bul də nɛʒ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Nearby French words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our French index: