Duvalier

\dy.va.lje\

/\dy.va.lje\/ name

The verdict

“Duvalier” is uncommon French (frequency #55,213 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,213
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom de famille, surtout connu pour François Duvalier (1907-1971), dirigeant haïtien et son fils Jean-Claude Duvalier.

Corpus desk

Index FR-duvalier · Duvalier · French

Duvalier · rank #55,213 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #55,213
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH Dussault

Nearest frequency peer: Dussault (-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 « Duvalier »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Duvalier
PropertyValue
HeadwordDuvalier
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\dy.va.lje\
Letters8
Frequency rank#55,213
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « Duvalier » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).Duvaliertombe 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: « Dussault » (#55,212), « dye » (#55,214), « débarrassant » (#55,215). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « Duvalier » est au #55,213. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Duvalier is uncommon French at frequency #55,213 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \dy.va.lje\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Nom de famille, surtout connu pour François Duvalier (1907-1971), dirigeant haïtien et son fils Jean-Claude Duvalier.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for Duvalier, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is Duvalier, spelled D-U-V-A-L-I-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom de famille, surtout connu pour François Duvalier (1907-1971), dirigeant haïtien et son fils Jean-Claude Duvalier.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Les Duvalier tuaient les vivants et les morts, n’avaient « d’ennemis que ceux de la Nation », traitaient leurs victimes « d’apatrides », leur interdisaient tombes et funérailles.

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 "Duvalier"?
"Duvalier" is spelled D-U-V-A-L-I-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \dy.va.lje\.
What does "Duvalier" mean?
As a proper noun, "Duvalier" means: Nom de famille, surtout connu pour François Duvalier (1907-1971), dirigeant haïtien et son fils Jean-Claude Duvalier.
How do you pronounce "Duvalier"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Duvalier" is \dy.va.lje\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Duvalier" come from?
"Duvalier" 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 "Duvalier", 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