-ette
\ɛt\
The verdict
“-ette” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a suffix. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Suffixe utilisé pour former des noms féminins en rapport avec une forme plus petite d’un objet. Souvent utilisé dans une visée hypocoristique.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ette · -ette · French
-ette · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "-" 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 | -ette |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Suffix |
| IPA | \ɛt\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « -ette » en français
Rare enough to double-check
-ette is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as asuffix, transcribed \ɛt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for -ette, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is -ette, spelled --E-T-T-E.
Definition
- 1Suffixe utilisé pour former des noms féminins en rapport avec une forme plus petite d’un objet. Souvent utilisé dans une visée hypocoristique.
- 2Suffixe utilisé pour former des noms qui expriment une imitation de quelque chose.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how -ette appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Sur une note plus sérieuse, cette crisette n’est pas anodine pour autant.
«Le grand âge ne peut plus se contenter de réformettes. Ce qu’il faut, c’est un véritable sursaut national!»
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.