fou rire

\fu ʁiʁ\

/\fu ʁiʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“fou rire” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Grand éclat de rire difficile à réfréner.

Key facts for fou rire
PropertyValue
Headwordfou rire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fu ʁiʁ\
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “fou rire” sits in French frequency

fou rire falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fou rire is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \fu ʁiʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Grand éclat de rire difficile à réfréner.".

fou rire doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is fou rire, spelled F-O-U- -R-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Grand éclat de rire difficile à réfréner.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "fou rire"?
"fou rire" is spelled F-O-U- -R-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fu ʁiʁ\.
What does "fou rire" mean?
As a noun, "fou rire" means: Grand éclat de rire difficile à réfréner.
How do you pronounce "fou rire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fou rire" is \fu ʁiʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fou rire" come from?
"fou rire" 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.

Using “fou rire”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is F-O-U- -R-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \fu ʁiʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list