chouette
\ʃwɛt\
The verdict
“chouette” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #5,736 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,736
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Oiseau rapace de l’ordre des strigiformes, généralement nocturne, qui, à la différence du hibou, n’a pas d’aigrettes.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chouette |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʃwɛt\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #5,736 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chouette” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for chouette is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʃwɛt\. Corpus data places it at rank #5,736 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for chouette, with forms such as "cchouette", "chhouette", and "choeutte". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "Colette", "couette", "Cosette", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is chouette, spelled C-H-O-U-E-T-T-E.
Definition
- 1Oiseau rapace de l’ordre des strigiformes, généralement nocturne, qui, à la différence du hibou, n’a pas d’aigrettes.
- 2Nom normalisé donné à deux genres (i.e. Strix et Pulsatrix) de rapaces nocturnes de la famille des strigidés comprenant 24 espèces quasi cosmopolites (étant absentes seulement du continent antarctique), dépourvues d'aigrettes, possédant un disque facial ovale ou elliptique bien délimité impliqué dans la localisation des sons, et dotées de pattes emplumées aux talons forts munis de puissantes serres.
- 3Ancien nom générique de divers oiseaux de l'ordre des strigiformes datant d'avant la normalisation des noms français d'oiseaux (vers 1981), qui était utilisé pour désigner quelques espèces rencontrées en Europe par juxtaposition au nom vernaculaire de ces dernières, e.g. chouette effraie (pour désigner l'effraie des clochers), chouette chevêche (pour désigner la chevêche d’Athéna), la chouette chevêchette (pour désigner la chevêchette d’Europe), etc., et qui continue d'être employé de manière informelle par tradition.
- 4Employé en accompagnement des mots généraux tels que bidule, machin, truc pour désigner des objets inconnus.
- 5Araignée de mer (crabe).
- 6Papillon de jour de la famille des lasiocampidés (Lasiocampidae).
- 7Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries. Elle est généralement représentée le corps tourné de façon à voir une aile, la face de front. À rapprocher de hibou et hulotte.
- 8variante du backgammon se jouant à plus de trois joueurs.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cchouette,chhouette,choeutte,chouete,chouetet,choutete,chuoette,cohuette,hcouette
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chouette - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "chouette"?
What does "chouette" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "chouette"?
How do you pronounce "chouette"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “chouette”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-H-O-U-E-T-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʃwɛt\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Colette” - see the side-by-side comparison. chouette vs Colette
- 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.