brigue
\bʁiɡ\
The verdict
“brigue” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #36,739 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #36,739
- frequency rank, French
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Manœuvre secrète et détournée pour obtenir de quelqu'un un avantage, intrigue, magouille.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | brigue |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bʁiɡ\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #36,739 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “brigue” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for brigue is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bʁiɡ\. Corpus data places it at rank #36,739 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for brigue, with forms such as "bbrigue", "birgue", and "brgiue". 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, "Brise", "brive", "Brille", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is brigue, spelled B-R-I-G-U-E.
Definition
- 1Manœuvre secrète et détournée pour obtenir de quelqu'un un avantage, intrigue, magouille.
- 2Cabale ; faction : parti.
- 3Fraude électorale.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbrigue,birgue,brgiue,brigeu,briggue,briuge,brrigue,rbigue
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of brigue - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “brigue”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-R-I-G-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bʁiɡ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Brise” - see the side-by-side comparison. brigue vs Brise
- 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.