bous

\bu\

/\bu\/ noun

The verdict

“bous” is uncommon French (frequency #58,462 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,462
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dans l’expression « des bous de sucre », du sucre qui a bouilli.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bous · bous · French

bous · rank #58,462 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #58,462
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bourrasque

Nearest frequency peer: bourrasque (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « bous »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « bous » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for bous
PropertyValue
Headwordbous
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bu\
Letters4
Frequency rank#58,462
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bous » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).boustombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « bourrasque » (#58,461), « bouter » (#58,463), « bonde » (#58,460). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bous » est au #58,462. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bous is uncommon French at frequency #58,462 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \bu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Dans l’expression « des bous de sucre », du sucre qui a bouilli.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for bous in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is bous, spelled B-O-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dans l’expression « des bous de sucre », du sucre qui a bouilli.

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 "bous"?
"bous" is spelled B-O-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is \bu\.
What does "bous" mean?
As a noun, "bous" means: Dans l’expression « des bous de sucre », du sucre qui a bouilli.
How do you pronounce "bous"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bous" is \bu\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bous" come from?
"bous" 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 "bous", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list