fossette

\fɔ.sɛt\

/\fɔ.sɛt\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“fossette” is uncommon French (frequency #55,295 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,295
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit creux formé sur certaines parties du corps.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fossette · fossette · French

fossette · rank #55,295 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #55,295
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH fortunées

Nearest frequency peer: fortunées (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « fossette »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « fossette » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for fossette
PropertyValue
Headwordfossette
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fɔ.sɛt\
Letters8
Frequency rank#55,295
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « fossette » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.fossettetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « fortunées » (#55,294), « formidablement » (#55,293), « Frankfurter » (#55,297). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fossette » est au #55,295. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fossette is uncommon French at frequency #55,295 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \fɔ.sɛt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for fossette in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is fossette, spelled F-O-S-S-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit creux formé sur certaines parties du corps.
  2. 2
    Petit creux que certaines personnes ont au bout du menton, ou qui se forme au milieu des joues quand elles rient.
  3. 3
    Petit creux que les enfants font en terre pour jouer à qui y fera tenir le plus de noix, de noisettes, de billes, de petites pièces de monnaie, etc., en les y jetant d’une certaine distance.
  4. 4
    Dépression d’origine hydrodynamique à la périphérie d’un film liquide en cours d’amincissement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how fossette appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le père prévenu, court furieux , après son voisin, lui lance un marteau de sellier, dont la partie tranchante s'enfonça dans l'endroit appelé la fossette du cou, et coupa la moelle épinière, ce qui occasionna la mort à l'instant même.
  2. Cette nuque conduisait le regard par un contour plein et renflé à des épaules fort blanches et potelées, que laissait à découvert l’échancrure du corsage et où se trouaient dans l’embonpoint deux fossettes appétissantes.

This word in other languages

dimple(English)hoyuelo(Español)Grübchen(Deutsch)covinha(Português)

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 "fossette"?
"fossette" is spelled F-O-S-S-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fɔ.sɛt\.
What does "fossette" mean?
As a noun, "fossette" means: Petit creux formé sur certaines parties du corps.
How do you pronounce "fossette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fossette" is \fɔ.sɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fossette" come from?
"fossette" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fossette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Franprix#55,298Flanagan#55,289flambées#55,288grattent#55,316

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list