corniaud

\kɔʁ.njo\

/\kɔʁ.njo\/ noun

The verdict

“corniaud” is uncommon French (frequency #92,588 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,588
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Chien bâtard, de race souvent non établie mais qui peut comprendre des croisements de chiens courants et de chiens d’arrêt, ce qui peut justifier un dressage en tant que chien de chasse.

Corpus desk

Index FR-corniaud · corniaud · French

corniaud · rank #92,588 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,588
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cori

Nearest frequency peer: cori (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « corniaud »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « corniaud » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for corniaud
PropertyValue
Headwordcorniaud
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔʁ.njo\
Letters8
Frequency rank#92,588
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « corniaud » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.corniaudtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « cori » (#92,587), « corvin » (#92,589), « corcovado » (#92,586). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « corniaud » est au #92,588. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

corniaud is uncommon French at frequency #92,588 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔʁ.njo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

corniaud doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is corniaud, spelled C-O-R-N-I-A-U-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Chien bâtard, de race souvent non établie mais qui peut comprendre des croisements de chiens courants et de chiens d’arrêt, ce qui peut justifier un dressage en tant que chien de chasse.
  2. 2
    Chien de chasse peu, voire pas, efficace.
  3. 3
    Chien sans race.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how corniaud appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Vous pouvez avoir un chien de race qui ne vaut rien à la chasse et un corniaud qui sera super. Tout dépend de la race choisie. Quand j’ai cherché mon braque de Weimar je n’ai pas eu trop le choix, il y en a peu et les corniauds c’est impossible à trouver.
  2. Il creuse, à l’aide de ses bâtards, de ses corniauds […] ce terrier de lapin.

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); 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 "corniaud"?
"corniaud" is spelled C-O-R-N-I-A-U-D. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔʁ.njo\.
What does "corniaud" mean?
As a noun, "corniaud" means: Chien bâtard, de race souvent non établie mais qui peut comprendre des croisements de chiens courants et de chiens d’arrêt, ce qui peut justifier un dressage en tant que chien de chasse.
How do you pronounce "corniaud"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "corniaud" is \kɔʁ.njo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "corniaud" come from?
"corniaud" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "corniaud", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list