boulet

\bu.lɛ\

/\bu.lɛ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“boulet” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,724. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,724
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Boule de pierre ou de métal fondu, de différentes grosseurs, dont on chargeait les canons.

Corpus desk

Index FR-boulet · boulet · French

boulet · rank #11,724 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,724
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bombardier

Nearest frequency peer: bombardier (-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 « boulet »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « boulet » 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).

boulet vs bout
67% similar
boulet vs brûlé
33% similar
boulet vs bouse
67% similar

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

Key facts for boulet
PropertyValue
Headwordboulet
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bu.lɛ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#11,724
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « boulet »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bombardier » (#11,723), « bloquée » (#11,722), « buisson » (#11,726). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « boulet » est au #11,724. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around boulet (IPA \bu.lɛ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #11,724 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 11 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for boulet, with forms such as "bboulet", "boluet", and "bouelt". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bout", "brûlé", "bouse", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is boulet, spelled B-O-U-L-E-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Boule de pierre ou de métal fondu, de différentes grosseurs, dont on chargeait les canons.
  2. 2
    Boule de métal que l’on attachait au pied des forçats.
  3. 3
    Ce que l'on doit supporter.
  4. 4
    Aggloméré de charbon de forme arrondie.
  5. 5
    Articulation du canon avec le paturon dans le membre (« jambe ») d’un cheval.
  6. 6
    Dans le pays de Liège, sorte de boulette de viande servie en sauce.
  7. 7
    Personne inutile, qui empêche d’avancer, souvent utilisé de manière injurieuse.
  8. 8
    Personne idiote, gaffeuse, qui commet des boulettes.
  9. 9
    Synonyme de griffon boulet (race de chien).
  10. 10
    Boule de pierre, de verre ou de métal, d’une taille plus grande que celle de la bille, qui sert à des jeux d’enfants.
  11. 11
    Tir très puissant.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Presque aussitôt, une détonation plus violente se fit entendre, un éclatant jet de vapeur fusa des flancs du brick, et un boulet, frappant le haut des roches qui abritaient Ayrton et Pencroff, les fit voler en éclats, mais les deux tireurs n’avaient pas été touchés.
  2. Et, au même instant, je me ressouvins que les boulets et la poudre à canon étaient restés à bord, et d’un coup de hache mettrait le tout à la disposition des scélérats.

Synonyms

canard boiteuxpoids mort

This word in other languages

cannonball(English)Kanonenkugel(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bboulet
  • boluet
  • bouelt
  • boulett
  • boullet
  • boulte
  • buolet
  • obulet

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

bboulet1boluet2bouelt2boulett1boullet1boulte2buolet2obulet2
Edit distance from "boulet"

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 "boulet"?
"boulet" is spelled B-O-U-L-E-T. The IPA pronunciation is \bu.lɛ\.
What does "boulet" mean?
As a noun, "boulet" means: Boule de pierre ou de métal fondu, de différentes grosseurs, dont on chargeait les canons.
What words are commonly confused with "boulet"?
"boulet" is commonly confused with "bout", "brûlé", "bouse". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "boulet"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "boulet" is \bu.lɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "boulet" come from?
"boulet" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "boulet", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

castro#11,730Bagdad#11,717avatar#11,715aidant#11,702

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

buisson8 variantsblond8 variantsadorer8 variantstiroir8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list