étouffer dans l’œuf

/\e.tu.fe dɑ̃ l‿œf\/ verb

The verdict

“étouffer dans l’œuf” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
19
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Stopper quelque chose à un stade précoce.

Key facts for étouffer dans l’œuf
PropertyValue
Headwordétouffer dans l’œuf
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\e.tu.fe dɑ̃ l‿œf\
Letters19
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “étouffer dans l’œuf” sits in French frequency

étouffer dans l’œuf falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for étouffer dans l’œuf is 19 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \e.tu.fe dɑ̃ l‿œf\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Stopper quelque chose à un stade précoce.".

No misspelling variants are generated for étouffer dans l’œuf in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is étouffer dans l’œuf, spelled É-T-O-U-F-F-E-R- -D-A-N-S- -L-’-Œ-U-F, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Stopper quelque chose à un stade précoce.

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “étouffer dans l’œuf, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/etouffer-dans-l-uf

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "étouffer dans l’œuf"?
"étouffer dans l’œuf" is spelled É-T-O-U-F-F-E-R- -D-A-N-S- -L-’-Œ-U-F. The IPA pronunciation is \e.tu.fe dɑ̃ l‿œf\.
What does "étouffer dans l’œuf" mean?
As a verb, "étouffer dans l’œuf" means: Stopper quelque chose à un stade précoce.
How do you pronounce "étouffer dans l’œuf"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "étouffer dans l’œuf" is \e.tu.fe dɑ̃ l‿œf\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "étouffer dans l’œuf" come from?
"étouffer dans l’œuf" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Using “étouffer dans l’œuf”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is É-T-O-U-F-F-E-R- -D-A-N-S- -L-’-Œ-U-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \e.tu.fe dɑ̃ l‿œf\ (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

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter É in our French index:

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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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list