embûche
\ɑ̃.byʃ\
The verdict
“embûche” is uncommon French (frequency #99,031 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #99,031
- frequency rank, French
- 3,255
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Entreprise secrète pour surprendre quelqu’un, pour lui nuire.
Corpus desk
Index FR-embuche · embûche · French
embûche · rank #99,031 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #99,031
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,255
- PHOTO-FINISH embrigadés
Nearest frequency peer: embrigadés (-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 « embûche »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- embrassade
embrassade
972 corpus weight
- embrigadés
embrigadés
971 corpus weight
- embûche
embûche
970 corpus weight
- enchaînaient
enchaînaient
969 corpus weight
- encodeur
encodeur
968 corpus weight
- encycliques
encycliques
967 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « embûche » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | embûche |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɑ̃.byʃ\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #99,031 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « embûche » en français
Rare enough to double-check
embûche is uncommon French at frequency #99,031 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɑ̃.byʃ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for embûche, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is embûche, spelled E-M-B-Û-C-H-E.
Definition
- 1Entreprise secrète pour surprendre quelqu’un, pour lui nuire.
- 2Piège, difficulté.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how embûche appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
…il se demandait s’il avait bien réellement le droit d’associer à cette vie de périls et d’embûches continuelles une jeune fille de l’âge de sa nièce, […] qui probablement ne pourrait pas s’accoutumer à ces dangers incessants et à ces agitations.
À quoi bon ces vaines enquêtes où il était sûr, si tant est qu’il évitât les embûches multipliées sous ses pas, de parvenir, en fin de compte, au plus pitoyable des résultats ?
This word in other languages
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "embûche", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).