brrr

\bʁː\

/\bʁː\/ onomatopoeia

The verdict

“brrr” is uncommon French (frequency #66,551 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as an onomatopoeia. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#66,551
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Onomatopée qui exprime le sentiment de froid ou plus rarement, le sentiment de peur.

Corpus desk

Index FR-brrr · brrr · French

brrr · rank #66,551 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #66,551
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH brotherhood

Nearest frequency peer: brotherhood (-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 « brrr »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for brrr
PropertyValue
Headwordbrrr
LanguageFrench
Part of speechOnomatopoeia
IPA\bʁː\
Letters4
Frequency rank#66,551
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « brrr » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.brrrtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « brotherhood » (#66,550), « brush » (#66,552), « brade » (#66,547). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « brrr » est au #66,551. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

brrr is uncommon French at frequency #66,551 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anonomatopoeia, transcribed \bʁː\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Onomatopée qui exprime le sentiment de froid ou plus rarement, le sentiment de peur.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for brrr, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is brrr, spelled B-R-R-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Onomatopée qui exprime le sentiment de froid ou plus rarement, le sentiment de peur.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. PÉTERHOFF : Brrr ! Attendez que ma langue se dégèle ! Brrr ! JEAN : Vont-ils revenir ? PÉTERHOFF : Dans un instant. J'ai pris les devants, pour me réchauffer plus vite. Brrr !
  2. Ce n’est pas par là… Brrr ! quel froid ! Les dents castagnettent. Il faut remonter.

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 "brrr"?
"brrr" is spelled B-R-R-R. The IPA pronunciation is \bʁː\.
What does "brrr" mean?
As an onomatopoeia, "brrr" means: Onomatopée qui exprime le sentiment de froid ou plus rarement, le sentiment de peur.
How do you pronounce "brrr"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "brrr" is \bʁː\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "brrr" come from?
"brrr" 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 "brrr", 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