couler
French, verb/ku.le/
couler is spelled C-O-U-L-E-R (6 letters) and appears 11 times per million words in written French, the 6,181st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Couler is a French verb meaning “to sink” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Se déverser, aller d’un endroit à un autre, en parlant des liquides”.
What does couler mean in English?
verb
- 1
to sink
- 2
to cast (metal); to pour (liquid)
- 3
to sink
Le bateau de croisière MV Explorer a commencé à couler après avoir heurté un iceberg.
- 4
to flow, to run; to slip, to skid
- 5
to shed (i.e. shed blood)
- 6
to go bankrupt
- 7
Quebecto fail, flunk (a course, test, etc.)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Se déverser, aller d’un endroit à un autre, en parlant des liquides. 2. Laisser échapper un liquide. 3. Glisser. 4. Descendre insensiblement au fond de l’eau.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of couler
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- coulant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- coulé participle past
- coule first-person indicative present
- coules indicative present second-person
- coulons first-person indicative plural
- coulez indicative plural present
- coulent indicative plural present
- coulais first-person imperfect indicative
- coulait imperfect indicative singular
- coulions first-person imperfect indicative
- couliez imperfect indicative plural
- coulaient imperfect indicative plural
- coulai first-person historic indicative
- coulas historic indicative past
- coula historic indicative past
- coulâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce couler?
- /ku.le/
- \ku.le\
- [ku.le]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to couler
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is couler in French?
couler appears 11 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).