déferler

\de.fɛʁ.le\

/\de.fɛʁ.le\/ verb

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

The verdict

“déferler” is uncommon French (frequency #61,474 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,474
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Déployer les voiles.

Corpus desk

Index FR-deferler · déferler · French

déferler · rank #61,474 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,474
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH déferlent

Nearest frequency peer: déferlent (-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 « déferler »

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 « déferler » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for déferler
PropertyValue
Headworddéferler
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\de.fɛʁ.le\
Letters8
Frequency rank#61,474
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « déferler » en français

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « déferlent » (#61,473), « défouloir » (#61,475), « défendrait » (#61,472). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « déferler » est au #61,474. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

déferler is uncommon French at frequency #61,474 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \de.fɛʁ.le\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for déferler in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is déferler, spelled D-É-F-E-R-L-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Déployer les voiles.
  2. 2
    Se déployer avec impétuosité et se résoudre en écume, en parlant des vagues.
  3. 3
    Se ruer, se déployer.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. On a levé l'ancre ; les voiles, Qu'on déferle, gonflent leurs toiles.
  2. La seule algue brune rencontrée est l'Alaria esculenta, qui forme la ceinture à la base ; cette espèce ne se trouve que dans les endroits exposés où la mer déferle avec violence (digue de Cherbourg, Roscoff, etc...) ; ici elle doit être à son affaire.

This word in other languages

unfurl(English)romper(Español)

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 "déferler"?
"déferler" is spelled D-É-F-E-R-L-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \de.fɛʁ.le\.
What does "déferler" mean?
As a verb, "déferler" means: Déployer les voiles.
How do you pronounce "déferler"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "déferler" is \de.fɛʁ.le\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "déferler" come from?
"déferler" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "déferler", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

démerdez#61,477déplaces#61,479dormants#61,454djellaba#61,451

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list