cerveau

/\sɛʁ.vo\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#1,730

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

cerveau is aFrenchnoun. It means: Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale. Pronounced \sɛʁ.vo\. It ranks #1,730 in French word frequency. Often confused with corbeau and cerveaux.

Key facts for cerveau
PropertyValue
Headwordcerveau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sɛʁ.vo\
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,730
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of cerveau in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for cerveau is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɛʁ.vo\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,730 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for cerveau, with forms such as "ccerveau", "cerevau", and "cerrveau". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "corbeau", "cerveaux", "caveau", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is cerveau, spelled C-E-R-V-E-A-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale.
  2. 2
    (plus précisément) La partie supérieure de l'encéphale, régissant les fonctions supérieures : diencéphale et télencéphale.
  3. 3
    Siège des facultés mentales, de la pensée.
  4. 4
    Centre organisateur qui gère et supervise ou personne qui a mis un plan sur pied.
  5. 5
    Personne à l’intelligence remarquable ; élite intellectuelle.
  6. 6
    Partie épaisse qui ferme la cloche dans son sommet et à laquelle est attaché le battant.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccerveau,cerevau,cerrveau,cervaeu,cerveua,cervveau,cevreau,creveau,ecrveau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cerveau

Misspelling Variants of "cerveau"

ccerveau8cerevau7cerrveau8cervaeu7cerveua7cervveau8cevreau7creveau7
Misspelling Variants of "cerveau"

Frequency rank: #1,730 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cerveau"?
"cerveau" is spelled C-E-R-V-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \sɛʁ.vo\.
What does "cerveau" mean?
As a noun, "cerveau" means: Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale.
What words are commonly confused with "cerveau"?
"cerveau" is commonly confused with "corbeau", "cerveaux", "caveau". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cerveau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cerveau" is \sɛʁ.vo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cerveau" come from?
"cerveau" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.