écureuil

/\e.ky.ʁœj\/ noun

Letters

8 characters

Frequency Rank

#20,895

in French word usage

Misspellings

11

tracked variants

Confusables

2

similar word pairs

écureuil is aFrenchnoun. It means: Petit mammifère rongeur et arboricole doué d’une grande agilité et remarquable par sa queue touffue qui se relève en panache. Pronounced \e.ky.ʁœj\. Often confused with écureuils and écueil.

Key facts for écureuil
PropertyValue
Headwordécureuil
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\e.ky.ʁœj\
Letters8
Frequency rank#20,895
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for écureuil is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \e.ky.ʁœj\. Corpus data places it at rank #20,895 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for écureuil, with forms such as "céureuil", "ecureuil", and "éccureuil". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "écureuils", "écueil", 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 écureuil, spelled É-C-U-R-E-U-I-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit mammifère rongeur et arboricole doué d’une grande agilité et remarquable par sa queue touffue qui se relève en panache.
  2. 2
    Personne prévoyante par analogie avec un comportement de l’animal.
  3. 3
    Caténairiste.
  4. 4
    Personne vive, active, qui ne tient pas en place.
  5. 5
    Synonyme de bombyx du hêtre.
  6. 6
    Sorte d’indicateur pour avertir des touches dans la pêche aux carpes et aux silures.
  7. 7
    Ancien nom vernaculaire du serran de sable (Diplectrum formosum, L. 1766), poisson des zones tropicales américaines atlantiques.
  8. 8
    Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries. Il est généralement représenté rampant, la queue le long du dos. À rapprocher de bièvre, castor, connil, lapin et lièvre.
  9. 9
    Pompier ou secouriste qui a pour rôle de maintenir l’axe tête-cou-tronc de la victime lors d’une manœuvre de désincarcération, parfois à l’aide d’un collier cervical.
  10. 10
    Militant dont l’action consiste à se confiner dans un arbre et n’acceptant d’en descendre qu’une fois sa cause entendue.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: céureuil,ecureuil,éccureuil,écrueuil,écueruil,écureiul,écureuill,écureuli,écurreuil,écurueil,éucreuil

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for écureuil

Misspelling Variants of "écureuil"

céureuil8ecureuil8éccureuil9écrueuil8écueruil8écureiul8écureuill9écureuli8
Misspelling Variants of "écureuil"

Frequency rank: #20,895 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "écureuil"?
"écureuil" is spelled É-C-U-R-E-U-I-L. The IPA pronunciation is \e.ky.ʁœj\.
What does "écureuil" mean?
As a noun, "écureuil" means: Petit mammifère rongeur et arboricole doué d’une grande agilité et remarquable par sa queue touffue qui se relève en panache.
What words are commonly confused with "écureuil"?
"écureuil" is commonly confused with "écureuils", "écueil". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "écureuil"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "écureuil" is \e.ky.ʁœj\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "écureuil" come from?
"écureuil" 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 É 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.