couvre-feu
\ku.vʁə.fø\
The verdict
“couvre-feu” 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
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Signal sonné par le clairon ou la trompette chaque soir pour l’extinction des feux.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | couvre-feu |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ku.vʁə.fø\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “couvre-feu” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for couvre-feu is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ku.vʁə.fø\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for couvre-feu in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 couvre-feu, spelled C-O-U-V-R-E---F-E-U.
Definition
- 1Signal sonné par le clairon ou la trompette chaque soir pour l’extinction des feux.
- 2Coup de cloche qui, dans certaines villes, marquait l’heure de rentrer chez soi et d’éteindre feu et lumière.
- 3Mesure de police qui interdit de sortir de chez soi entre telle et telle heure.
- 4Ustensile de cuivre, de terre cuite ou de fer qu’on mettait sur le feu pour le conserver pendant la nuit.
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 “couvre-feu”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-U-V-R-E---F-E-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ku.vʁə.fø\ (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.