coulée

\ku.le\

/\ku.le\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“coulée” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #18,972. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#18,972
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de s’écouler ; résultat de cette action.

Corpus desk

Index FR-coulee · coulée · French

coulée · rank #18,972 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #18,972
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH costard

Nearest frequency peer: costard (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « coulée »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « coulée » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

coulée vs coupe
67% similar
coulée vs coûte
50% similar
coulée vs culte
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for coulée
PropertyValue
Headwordcoulée
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ku.le\
Letters6
Frequency rank#18,972
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « coulée »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).couléese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « costard » (#18,971), « coupent » (#18,973), « coordinateur » (#18,970). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « coulée » est au #18,972. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around coulée (IPA \ku.le\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #18,972 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for coulée, with forms such as "ccoulée", "coluée", and "coulee". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "coupe", "coûte", "culte", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is coulée, spelled C-O-U-L-É-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de s’écouler ; résultat de cette action.
  2. 2
    Déversement du métal ou du verre liquide hors des fourneaux.
  3. 3
    Sentier étroit par où le cerf gagne son réduit.
  4. 4
    Vallon.
  5. 5
    Faux chemin que les animaux tracent dans les bois.
  6. 6
    Caractère d’écriture penché, dont toutes les lettres se tiennent et dont tous les jambages sont droits.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il m’est dit à chaque instant que l’un des grands soucis des autorités départementales, c’est l’entretien des routes, souvent emportées par des torrents, par les coulées de boue, par les éboulements, par des chutes de blocs.
  2. On ne doit pas négliger de couvrir le creuset, sans cette précaution il s'y introduiroit du charbon qui gêneroit pour la coulée qui se fait dans une lingotière de fer forgé.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccoulée
  • coluée
  • coulee
  • couleé
  • coullée
  • couéle
  • cuolée
  • oculée

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of coulée - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

ccoulée1coluée2coulee1couleé2coullée1couéle2cuolée2oculée2
Edit distance from "coulée"

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 "coulée"?
"coulée" is spelled C-O-U-L-É-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ku.le\.
What does "coulée" mean?
As a noun, "coulée" means: Action de s’écouler ; résultat de cette action.
What words are commonly confused with "coulée"?
"coulée" is commonly confused with "coupe", "coûte", "culte". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "coulée"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "coulée" is \ku.le\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "coulée" come from?
"coulée" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "coulée", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

coiffe#18,964bunker#18,949Bresse#18,948Beaune#18,944

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

croît8 variantsdissout8 variantsbalais8 variantsenorme8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list