boutonnière

\bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\

/\bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“boutonnière” is uncommon French (frequency #50,097 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,097
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petite fente faite à un vêtement pour y passer un bouton.

Corpus desk

Index FR-boutonniere · boutonnière · French

boutonnière · rank #50,097 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,097
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bour

Nearest frequency peer: bour (-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 « boutonnière »

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 « boutonnière » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for boutonnière
PropertyValue
Headwordboutonnière
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#50,097
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « boutonnière » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).boutonnièretombe 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: « bour » (#50,096), « broyés » (#50,098), « bouclage » (#50,095). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « boutonnière » est au #50,097. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

boutonnière is uncommon French at frequency #50,097 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for boutonnière in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is boutonnière, spelled B-O-U-T-O-N-N-I-È-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petite fente faite à un vêtement pour y passer un bouton.
  2. 2
    Petite fente sur le col gauche d'un costume par laquelle on attache les décorations civiles ou militaires, une fleur ou un bijou.
  3. 3
    Incision.
  4. 4
    Dépression creusée par érosion dans l'axe d'un anticlinal. Ce sont deux cuestas qui se font face.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Tartous Hama, en smoking d’ottoman blanc, une rose desséchée à sa boutonnière, pieds et poings liés, le visage convulsé et bleu, les yeux exorbités.
  2. Orlando se tenait devant son miroir, cherchant à tâtons les boutonnières de sa chemise. Encore une fois, les perles venaient de lui glisser des doigts et étaient tombées par terre.

This word in other languages

buttonhole(English)ojal(Español)botoeira(Português)

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 "boutonnière"?
"boutonnière" is spelled B-O-U-T-O-N-N-I-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\.
What does "boutonnière" mean?
As a noun, "boutonnière" means: Petite fente faite à un vêtement pour y passer un bouton.
How do you pronounce "boutonnière"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "boutonnière" is \bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "boutonnière" come from?
"boutonnière" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "boutonnière", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bandelettes#50,078chocolatier#50,116communicant#50,128alsaciennes#50,055

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list