flou
\flu\
The verdict
“flou” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,440) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #7,440
- frequency rank, French
- 3,276
- “F” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - D'un coloris sans vigueur, qui manque de netteté des contours ou des arêtes.
Corpus desk
Index FR-flou · flou · French
flou · rank #7,440 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,440
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,276
- PHOTO-FINISH fluide
Nearest frequency peer: fluide (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “flou”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- entreprendre
entreprendre
92,565 corpus weight
- exceptions
exceptions
92,564 corpus weight
- exploit
exploit
92,563 corpus weight
- flou
flou
92,561 corpus weight
- fluide
fluide
92,560 corpus weight
- fournisseur
fournisseur
92,559 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “flou” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | flou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \flu\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #7,440 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “flou” se place dans la fréquence du français
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for flou is neighbouring look-alikes ("fo", "fou", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \flu\. Frequency #7,440 among 3,276 “F” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for flou, with forms such as "fflou", "fllou", and "folu". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fo", "fou", "foi", 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, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is flou, spelled F-L-O-U.
Definition
- 1D'un coloris sans vigueur, qui manque de netteté des contours ou des arêtes.
- 2Qualifie une chose un peu indistincte, dont le caractère n’est pas facilement déterminable ou discernable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how flou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je suis consterné. Grâce aux progrès du progrès, il va devenir impossible de faire des photos floues.
Ces idées floues Là comme un serment qui gêne Je sais tu t'en fous C'est un soupir Un frisson qui ne vaut pas ces Trois francs six sous J'ai les idées floues Je sais tu t'en fous J'ai les idées floues.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- fflou
- fllou
- folu
- lfou
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flou - 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 "flou"?
What does "flou" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "flou"?
How do you pronounce "flou"?
What language does "flou" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "flou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "flou". Here's where to go from here.
- "flou" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "fo". View pair
- 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #7,440 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "F" letter cohort. F–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.