clouer le bec
\klu.e lə bɛk\
The verdict
“clouer le bec” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faire taire quelqu’un ; le réduire à quia.
Corpus desk
Index FR-clouer-le-bec · clouer le bec · French
clouer le bec · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clouer le bec |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \klu.e lə bɛk\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « clouer le bec » en français
Rare enough to double-check
clouer le bec is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \klu.e lə bɛk\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Faire taire quelqu’un ; le réduire à quia.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for clouer le bec, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, 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 clouer le bec, spelled C-L-O-U-E-R- -L-E- -B-E-C.
Definition
- 1Faire taire quelqu’un ; le réduire à quia.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how clouer le bec appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Nous sommes en République depuis six heures ; « en République de paix et de concorde ». J’ai voulu la qualifier de Sociale, je levais mon chapeau, on me l’a renfoncé sur les yeux et on m’a cloué le bec.
Ce bon sens, effectivement, me clouait le bec. Bien que j'eusse pu, pour la forme, et aussi pour le fond un peu, discuter ces allégations simplistes par moments.
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.