étouffer

\e.tu.fe\

/\e.tu.fe\/ verb

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

The verdict

“étouffer” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,331. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,331
frequency rank, French
1,805
“É” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faire mourir en arrêtant la respiration.

Corpus desk

Index FR-etouffer · étouffer · French

étouffer · rank #11,331 · 10 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,331
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,805
  • PHOTO-FINISH électro

Nearest frequency peer: électro (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « étouffer »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « étouffer » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

étouffer vs étoffe
75% similar
étouffer vs étouffe
88% similar
étouffer vs étoffer
88% similar

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

Key facts for étouffer
PropertyValue
Headwordétouffer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\e.tu.fe\
Letters8
Frequency rank#11,331
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « étouffer »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).étoufferse 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 « électro » (#11,330), « évitant » (#11,332), « acoustique » (#11,334). Parmi 1,805 lemmes en « É », « étouffer » est au #11,331. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around étouffer (IPA \e.tu.fe\), averb. Corpus frequency is #11,331 among 1,805 “É” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for étouffer, with forms such as "etouffer", "téouffer", and "éotuffer". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "étoffe", "étouffe", "étoffer", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is étouffer, spelled É-T-O-U-F-F-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Faire mourir en arrêtant la respiration.
  2. 2
    Suffoquer, empêcher de respirer librement.
  3. 3
    Avoir la respiration empêchée ou mourir faute d’air.
  4. 4
    Dérober aux plantes l’air ou les nutriments nécessaires à leur végétation.
  5. 5
    Éteindre en interceptant l’air.
  6. 6
    Supprimer ; annihiler ; empêcher de se développer ; cacher ; surmonter.
  7. 7
    Amortir le son.
  8. 8
    Empêcher l’apparition publique.
  9. 9
    Escamoter, faire disparaître.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La diphtérie peut étouffer les enfants.
  2. Malheureux agitateurs ! que le désastre, la honte et le désespoir du pays vous étouffent, si vous avez une conscience !

This word in other languages

smother(English)sofocar(Español)erdrosseln(Deutsch)abafar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • etouffer
  • téouffer
  • éotuffer
  • étofufer
  • étoufefr
  • étoufer
  • étoufferr
  • étouffre
  • éttouffer
  • étuoffer

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of étouffer - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

etouffer1téouffer2éotuffer2étofufer2étoufefr2étoufer1étoufferr1étouffre2
Edit distance from "étouffer"

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 "étouffer"?
"étouffer" is spelled É-T-O-U-F-F-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \e.tu.fe\.
What does "étouffer" mean?
As a verb, "étouffer" means: Faire mourir en arrêtant la respiration.
What words are commonly confused with "étouffer"?
"étouffer" is commonly confused with "étoffe", "étouffe", "étoffer". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "étouffer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "étouffer" is \e.tu.fe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "étouffer" come from?
"étouffer" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "étouffer", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

adaptées#11,336attendue#11,345Tunisien#11,317trilogie#11,315

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

actives10 variantsvierges10 variantsvieillesse10 variantsspirale10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list