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 September 3, 2026) - Grand éclat de rire difficile à réfréner.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fou-rire · fou rire · French

fou rire · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 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.

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

Longue queue: rang de « fou rire » en français

fou riresiège au-delà des 100.000 formes les plus fréquentes du français, dans la traîne du lexique spécialisé ou peu usité.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Son « tu » me froissa un peu. Mais je lui répondis gaminement : « Tu trouves que j'ai engraissé ! » Il partit d'un fou rire. Et, à partir de ce jour, nous nous tutoyâmes et nous devînmes les meilleurs amis du monde.
  2. Nous évoquâmes d’Esparbès, puis je ne sais plus pourquoi le fou rire nous prit, un de ces fous rires libérateurs qui sont comme une purge enivrante et salutaire.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list