éminence grise
\e.mi.nɑ̃s ɡʁiz\
The verdict
“éminence grise” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Conseiller influent qui reste dans l’ombre d’une personnalité.
Corpus desk
Index FR-eminence-grise · éminence grise · French
éminence grise · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "É" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | éminence grise |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \e.mi.nɑ̃s ɡʁiz\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « éminence grise » en français
Rare enough to double-check
éminence grise is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \e.mi.nɑ̃s ɡʁiz\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Conseiller influent qui reste dans l’ombre d’une personnalité.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for éminence grise, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is éminence grise, spelled É-M-I-N-E-N-C-E- -G-R-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1Conseiller influent qui reste dans l’ombre d’une personnalité.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how éminence grise appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Cette méfiance envers le prêtre inconnu qu’un nouvel évêque amène est bien naturelle, en somme ; l’on craint forcément qu’il ne joue auprès du prélat le rôle plus ou moins occulte d’une Éminence grise ; […].
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.