chouette effraie
\ʃwɛ.t‿e.fʁɛ\
The verdict
“chouette effraie” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Espèce d’oiseau rapace nocturne ubiquiste, qui a un masque facial blanc en forme de cœur.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chouette effraie |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʃwɛ.t‿e.fʁɛ\ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chouette effraie” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for chouette effraie is 16 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʃwɛ.t‿e.fʁɛ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Espèce d’oiseau rapace nocturne ubiquiste, qui a un masque facial blanc en forme de cœur.".
chouette effraie has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is chouette effraie, spelled C-H-O-U-E-T-T-E- -E-F-F-R-A-I-E.
Definition
- 1Espèce d’oiseau rapace nocturne ubiquiste, qui a un masque facial blanc en forme de cœur.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "chouette effraie"?
What does "chouette effraie" mean?
How do you pronounce "chouette effraie"?
What language does "chouette effraie" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “chouette effraie”
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- -E-F-F-R-A-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʃwɛ.t‿e.fʁɛ\ (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.