écu
French, noun
écu is spelled É-C-U (3 letters) and appears 1.2 times per million words in written French, the 27,734th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Écu is a French masculine noun meaning “shield” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, ECU is a different word: “European Currency Unit”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Bouclier que portaient autrefois les chevaliers”.
What does écu mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineshield
- 2
masculineécu
noun
- 1
feminineEuropean Currency Unit
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Bouclier que portaient autrefois les chevaliers. 2. Figure en forme d'écu stylisé sur lequel on pose les pièces honorables, les partitions, les meubles d’armoiries. 3. Monnaie d’or ou d’argent frappée aux armes du souverain qui l’émettait. 4. Ancienne monnaie de compte populaire.
noun: 1. Ancienne dénomination de l’euro.
noun: 1. Personne à prévenir en cas d’urgence.
noun: 1. ECU, monnaie européenne, prédécesseur de l'euro.
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 écu
- écus plural
- ecus plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to écu
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is écu in French?
écu appears 1.2 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).