boutonnière
\bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\
The verdict
“boutonnière” is an uncommon French word, ranked #50,097 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #50,097
- frequency rank, French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Petite fente faite à un vêtement pour y passer un bouton.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | boutonnière |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #50,097 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “boutonnière” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for boutonnière is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #50,097 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Petite fente faite à un vêtement pour y passer un bouton.
- 2Petite fente sur le col gauche d'un costume par laquelle on attache les décorations civiles ou militaires, une fleur ou un bijou.
- 3Incision.
- 4Dépression creusée par érosion dans l'axe d'un anticlinal. Ce sont deux cuestas qui se font face.
This word in other languages
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
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Using “boutonnière”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-O-U-T-O-N-N-I-È-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bu.tɔ.njɛʁ\ (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
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.