farouche
\fa.ʁuʃ\
The verdict
“farouche” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #20,139 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #20,139
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Sauvage, indompté, qui s’enfuit quand on l’approche, en parlant des bêtes.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | farouche |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \fa.ʁuʃ\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #20,139 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “farouche” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for farouche is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fa.ʁuʃ\. Corpus data places it at rank #20,139 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for farouche, with forms such as "afrouche", "faoruche", and "farocuhe". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "fauche", "farouches", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is farouche, spelled F-A-R-O-U-C-H-E.
Definition
- 1Sauvage, indompté, qui s’enfuit quand on l’approche, en parlant des bêtes.
- 2Craintif, ombrageux, insociable, intraitable… en parlant des personnes.
- 3Craintif, peureux, ombrageux, en parlant de l’air, du regard, des manières, des sentiments, etc.
- 4Se dit d’une jeune fille ou d’une femme qui refuse que l’on lui fasse la cour.
- 5Entêté, féroce, persistant.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: afrouche,faoruche,farocuhe,faroucche,farouceh,farouchhe,farouhce,farrouche,faruoche,ffarouche,fraouche
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of farouche - 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.
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 "farouche"?
What does "farouche" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "farouche"?
How do you pronounce "farouche"?
What language does "farouche" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “farouche”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is F-A-R-O-U-C-H-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \fa.ʁuʃ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fauche” - see the side-by-side comparison. farouche vs fauche
- 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.