bubu

\by.by\

/\by.by\/ noun

The verdict

“bubu” is uncommon French (frequency #97,739 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#97,739
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bureaucrate, statut d’utilisateur permettant la modification des droits des autres utilisateurs.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bubu · bubu · French

bubu · rank #97,739 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #97,739
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH Bueil

Nearest frequency peer: Bueil (+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 « bubu »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for bubu
PropertyValue
Headwordbubu
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\by.by\
Letters4
Frequency rank#97,739
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bubu » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).bubutombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Bueil » (#97,740), « bronchiques » (#97,737), « bums » (#97,741). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bubu » est au #97,739. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bubu is uncommon French at frequency #97,739 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \by.by\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Bureaucrate, statut d’utilisateur permettant la modification des droits des autres utilisateurs.".

Zero misspellings are on record for bubu in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No documented word history exists 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 bubu, spelled B-U-B-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bureaucrate, statut d’utilisateur permettant la modification des droits des autres utilisateurs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Depuis une mise à jour du logiciel, les droits d’admin et de bubu ont été séparés : on peut maintenant être bureaucrate (avoir le droit de renommer des comptes, faire des bots, donner les droits d'admin) sans être soi-même admin (sans avoir le droit de supprimer et tout ça).

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

How do you spell "bubu"?
"bubu" is spelled B-U-B-U. The IPA pronunciation is \by.by\.
What does "bubu" mean?
As a noun, "bubu" means: Bureaucrate, statut d’utilisateur permettant la modification des droits des autres utilisateurs.
How do you pronounce "bubu"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bubu" is \by.by\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bubu" come from?
"bubu" 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 "bubu", 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