enfant terrible
\ɑ̃.fɑ̃ tɛ.ʁibl\
The verdict
“enfant terrible” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Jeune personne turbulente, qui met son entourage dans des situations délicates.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | enfant terrible |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɑ̃.fɑ̃ tɛ.ʁibl\ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “enfant terrible” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for enfant terrible is 15 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɑ̃.fɑ̃ tɛ.ʁibl\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for enfant terrible, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 enfant terrible, spelled E-N-F-A-N-T- -T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1Jeune personne turbulente, qui met son entourage dans des situations délicates.
- 2Celui ou celle qui ne se soumet pas aux conventions établies, qui tend, par ses choix, à la redéfinition du mouvement auquel il appartient.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “enfant terrible”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is E-N-F-A-N-T- -T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɑ̃.fɑ̃ tɛ.ʁibl\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.