clou de girofle
\klu də ʒi.ʁɔfl\
The verdict
“clou de girofle” 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
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Bouton des fleurs du giroflier desséché utilisé comme épice.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clou de girofle |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \klu də ʒi.ʁɔfl\ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “clou de girofle” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for clou de girofle is 15 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \klu də ʒi.ʁɔfl\. 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: "Bouton des fleurs du giroflier desséché utilisé comme épice.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for clou de girofle, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is clou de girofle, spelled C-L-O-U- -D-E- -G-I-R-O-F-L-E.
Definition
- 1Bouton des fleurs du giroflier desséché utilisé comme épice.
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
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Using “clou de girofle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-L-O-U- -D-E- -G-I-R-O-F-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \klu də ʒi.ʁɔfl\ (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.