fausse bonne idée
\fos bɔ.n‿i.de\
The verdict
“fausse bonne idée” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Idée a priori originale et séduisante mais qui se montre, a posteriori, moins pertinente ou utile que prévu, voire qui a un effet pervers inattendu.
Corpus desk
Index FR-fausse-bonne-idee · fausse bonne idée · French
fausse bonne idée · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" 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 | fausse bonne idée |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fos bɔ.n‿i.de\ |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « fausse bonne idée » en français
Rare enough to double-check
fausse bonne idée is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \fos bɔ.n‿i.de\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Idée a priori originale et séduisante mais qui se montre, a posteriori, moins pertinente ou utile que prévu, voire qui a un effet pervers inattendu.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for fausse bonne idée, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is fausse bonne idée, spelled F-A-U-S-S-E- -B-O-N-N-E- -I-D-É-E.
Definition
- 1Idée a priori originale et séduisante mais qui se montre, a posteriori, moins pertinente ou utile que prévu, voire qui a un effet pervers inattendu.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fausse bonne idée appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il a raison. Mais il a tort d’avoir raison : je veux dire, tout simplement, que M. André Hugon a eu ce qu’on appelle une « fausse bonne idée ».
Me voici en route pour la gare des Batignolles, escorté d’une voiture de son et caressant naïvement ma fausse bonne idée.
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.