café au lait

\ka.fe o lɛ\

/\ka.fe o lɛ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“café au lait” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Boisson obtenue en mélangeant du café et du lait.

Key facts for café au lait
PropertyValue
Headwordcafé au lait
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ka.fe o lɛ\
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “café au lait” sits in French frequency

café au lait falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

café au lait is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ka.fe o lɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for café au lait in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is café au lait, spelled C-A-F-É- -A-U- -L-A-I-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Boisson obtenue en mélangeant du café et du lait.
  2. 2
    Portion de cette boisson.
  3. 3
    Couleur d’un tel mélange.
  4. 4
    Mulâtre.

Synonyms

café renversécafé russe

This word in other languages

café au lait(English)café con leche(Español)Milchkaffee(Deutsch)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "café au lait"?
"café au lait" is spelled C-A-F-É- -A-U- -L-A-I-T. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.fe o lɛ\.
What does "café au lait" mean?
As a noun, "café au lait" means: Boisson obtenue en mélangeant du café et du lait.
How do you pronounce "café au lait"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "café au lait" is \ka.fe o lɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "café au lait" come from?
"café au lait" 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.

Using “café au lait”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is C-A-F-É- -A-U- -L-A-I-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ka.fe o lɛ\ (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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list