boulette

\bu.lɛt\

/\bu.lɛt\/ noun

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

The verdict

“boulette” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #25,231. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#25,231
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
8
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petite boule de cire, de papier, de mie de pain, etc.

Corpus desk

Index FR-boulette · boulette · French

boulette · rank #25,231 · 9 variants · 8 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #25,231
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 8 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bouges

Nearest frequency peer: bouges (-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 « boulette »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « boulette » 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).

boulette vs buvette
75% similar
boulette vs brunette
75% similar
boulette vs brouette
75% similar

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

Key facts for boulette
PropertyValue
Headwordboulette
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bu.lɛt\
Letters8
Frequency rank#25,231
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs8
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « boulette »

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bouges » (#25,230), « bouteflika » (#25,232), « bora » (#25,229). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « boulette » est au #25,231. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around boulette (IPA \bu.lɛt\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #25,231 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for boulette, with forms such as "bboulette", "boluette", and "boueltte". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "buvette", "brunette", "brouette", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

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 boulette, spelled B-O-U-L-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petite boule de cire, de papier, de mie de pain, etc.
  2. 2
    Boulette de haschich.
  3. 3
    Petite boule de pâte ou de chair hachée.
  4. 4
    Bévue, sottise, bourde.
  5. 5
    (Nouvelle-Calédonie) Pleine forme.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Pendant tout le cours, ces deux écoliers se sont lancé des boulettes de pain à la figure.
  2. Il en arracha un peu de mie pour faire une boulette et la lança railleusement par le vasistas d’une fenêtre sur laquelle il s’appuyait.

Synonyms

quenellekeftapolpettaKnödel

This word in other languages

meatball(English)albóndiga(Español)Kügelchen(Deutsch)bolota(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bboulette
  • boluette
  • boueltte
  • boulete
  • bouletet
  • boullette
  • boultete
  • buolette
  • obulette

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of boulette - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

bboulette1boluette2boueltte2boulete1bouletet2boullette1boultete2buolette2
Edit distance from "boulette"

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 "boulette"?
"boulette" is spelled B-O-U-L-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \bu.lɛt\.
What does "boulette" mean?
As a noun, "boulette" means: Petite boule de cire, de papier, de mie de pain, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "boulette"?
"boulette" is commonly confused with "buvette", "brunette", "brouette". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "boulette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "boulette" is \bu.lɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "boulette" come from?
"boulette" 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 "boulette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

blogueur#25,225binaires#25,223Canaries#25,240Bellevue#25,221

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

bouvier9 variantsboiteux9 variantsassassine9 variantsAngèle9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list