brouillon

\bʁu.jɔ̃\

/\bʁu.jɔ̃\/ noun

The verdict

“brouillon” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #20,069. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#20,069
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Premier jet de ce qu’on écrit d’abord sur le papier pour le mettre ensuite au net.

Corpus desk

Index FR-brouillon · brouillon · French

brouillon · rank #20,069 · 11 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #20,069
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH brosser

Nearest frequency peer: brosser (-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 « brouillon »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « brouillon » 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).

brouillon vs brouillons
90% similar
brouillon vs bouillon
89% similar
brouillon vs brouille
78% similar

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

Key facts for brouillon
PropertyValue
Headwordbrouillon
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bʁu.jɔ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#20,069
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « brouillon »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.brouillonse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « brosser » (#20,068), « buissons » (#20,070), « bro » (#20,067). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « brouillon » est au #20,069. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around brouillon (IPA \bʁu.jɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #20,069 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for brouillon, with forms such as "bbrouillon", "boruillon", and "broiullon". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "brouillons", "bouillon", "brouille", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 brouillon, spelled B-R-O-U-I-L-L-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Premier jet de ce qu’on écrit d’abord sur le papier pour le mettre ensuite au net.
  2. 2
    Le papier même sur lequel on a écrit le brouillon.
  3. 3
    Brouillard.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. En plus de sa machine arithmétique, la première contribution importante de Leibniz aurait été, aux yeux de Huygens, la quadrature arithmétique du cercle, dont Leibniz avait rédigé le premier brouillon en octobre 1674.
  2. Un cahier de brouillons.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbrouillon
  • boruillon
  • broiullon
  • brouillno
  • brouillonn
  • brouiloln
  • brouilon
  • broulilon
  • brrouillon
  • bruoillon
  • rbouillon

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of brouillon - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

bbrouillon1boruillon2broiullon2brouillno2brouillonn1brouiloln2brouilon1broulilon2
Edit distance from "brouillon"

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 "brouillon"?
"brouillon" is spelled B-R-O-U-I-L-L-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \bʁu.jɔ̃\.
What does "brouillon" mean?
As a noun, "brouillon" means: Premier jet de ce qu’on écrit d’abord sur le papier pour le mettre ensuite au net.
What words are commonly confused with "brouillon"?
"brouillon" is commonly confused with "brouillons", "bouillon", "brouille". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "brouillon"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "brouillon" is \bʁu.jɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "brouillon" come from?
"brouillon" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "brouillon", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list