ennui

\ɑ̃.nɥi\

/\ɑ̃.nɥi\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ennui” sits in 17 confusable pairs (corpus #7,686) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#7,686
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
17
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lassitude, langueur temporaire causée par une occupation dépourvue d’intérêt, monotone, déplaisante ou trop prolongée, ou par le désœuvrement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ennui · ennui · French

ennui · rank #7,686 · 4 variants · 17 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,686
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 17 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH enchères

Nearest frequency peer: enchères (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « ennui »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « ennui » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ennui vs envi
60% similar
ennui vs étui
40% similar
ennui vs envoi
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ennui
PropertyValue
Headwordennui
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɑ̃.nɥi\
Letters5
Frequency rank#7,686
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs17
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « ennui »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).ennuise place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « enchères » (#7,685), « ensembles » (#7,687), « effondrement » (#7,684). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « ennui » est au #7,686. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ennui is neighbouring look-alikes ("envi", "étui", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɑ̃.nɥi\. Frequency #7,686 among 3,255 “E” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for ennui, with forms such as "enniu", "enui", and "enuni". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "envi", "étui", "envoi", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored 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 ennui, spelled E-N-N-U-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lassitude, langueur temporaire causée par une occupation dépourvue d’intérêt, monotone, déplaisante ou trop prolongée, ou par le désœuvrement.
  2. 2
    Lassitude morale permanente qui fait qu’on ne prend d’intérêt, qu’on ne trouve de plaisir à rien.
  3. 3
    Contrariété ; souci. — Note d’usage : Dans ce sens, il s’emploie souvent au pluriel.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ennui appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Je conseille aux gens qui ont la fatuité de prétendre qu’ils s’ennuient d’aller passer trois ou quatre jours à l’Escurial ; ils apprendront là ce que c’est que le véritable ennui, et ils s’amuseront tout le reste de leur vie en pensant qu’ils pourraient être à l’Escurial et qu’ils n’y sont pas.
  2. L’ennui est la grande maladie de la vie ; on ne cesse de maudire sa brièveté, et toujours elle est trop longue, puisqu’on n’en sait que faire.

Synonyms

ennuyance

Antonyms

désennui

This word in other languages

boredom(English)tedio(Español)Langeweile(Deutsch)aborrecimento(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • enniu
  • enui
  • enuni
  • nenui

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ennui - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

enniu2enui1enuni2nenui2
Edit distance from "ennui"

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

How do you spell "ennui"?
"ennui" is spelled E-N-N-U-I. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.nɥi\.
What does "ennui" mean?
As a noun, "ennui" means: Lassitude, langueur temporaire causée par une occupation dépourvue d’intérêt, monotone, déplaisante ou trop prolongée, ou par le désœuvrement.
What words are commonly confused with "ennui"?
"ennui" is commonly confused with "envi", "étui", "envoi". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ennui"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ennui" is \ɑ̃.nɥi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ennui" come from?
"ennui" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ennui", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

fines#7,694finie#7,695gants#7,699grant#7,703

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list