eau

/\o\/ noun

Letters

3 characters

Frequency Rank

#287

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

eau is aFrenchnoun. It means: Liquide transparent, incolore, inodore et insipide à l’état pur, qui est le principal constituant des lacs, rivières, mers et océans. Pronounced \o\. It ranks #287 in French word frequency. Often confused with et and en.

Key facts for eau
PropertyValue
Headwordeau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\o\
Letters3
Frequency rank#287
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of eau in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for eau is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \o\. Corpus data places it at rank #287 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 16 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for eau in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "et", "en", "Eu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is eau, spelled E-A-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Liquide transparent, incolore, inodore et insipide à l’état pur, qui est le principal constituant des lacs, rivières, mers et océans.
  2. 2
    Pluie.
  3. 3
    Corps composé de formule brute H₂O existant surtout sous forme de glace, d’eau liquide ou de vapeur, mais aussi d’eau de constitution.
  4. 4
    Quantités ou étendues liquides naturelles.
  5. 5
    Zone maritime considérée comme un territoire appartenant à tel ou tel pays que baigne cette mer.
  6. 6
    Sillage, houaiche.
  7. 7
    Fluides, sérosités qui se trouvent ou qui se forment dans le corps de l’être humain ou de l’animal.
  8. 8
    Fluides, sérosités qui se trouvent ou qui se forment dans le corps de l’être humain ou de l’animal.
  9. 9
    Fluides, sérosités qui se trouvent ou qui se forment dans le corps de l’être humain ou de l’animal.
  10. 10
    Fluides, sérosités qui se trouvent ou qui se forment dans le corps de l’être humain ou de l’animal.
  11. 11
    Sources qui, en passant dans l’intérieur de la terre au travers des minéraux, ont contracté quelque vertu médicinale, et dont on fait usage, soit en s’y baignant, soit en les prenant comme boisson. Lieu où l’on va prendre ces eaux.
  12. 12
    Liquide artificiel extrait d’une substance par distillation, décoction, ou expression, ou composé de différentes substances.
  13. 13
    Flux ; flot ; courant.
  14. 14
    Désigne des couleurs, en particulier un vert pâle et doux. #B0F2B6 .
  15. 15
    Lustre, brillant qu’ont les perles, les diamants et quelques autres pierreries.
  16. 16
    Élément primordial de l’univers, dans certaines cosmogonies.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #287 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "eau"?
"eau" is spelled E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \o\.
What does "eau" mean?
As a noun, "eau" means: Liquide transparent, incolore, inodore et insipide à l’état pur, qui est le principal constituant des lacs, rivières, mers et océans.
What words are commonly confused with "eau"?
"eau" is commonly confused with "et", "en", "Eu". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "eau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "eau" is \o\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "eau" come from?
"eau" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter E in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.