foudroyer
\fu.dʁwa.je\
The verdict
“foudroyer” is uncommon French (frequency #76,588 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,588
- frequency rank, French
- 3,276
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Frapper de la foudre.
Corpus desk
Index FR-foudroyer · foudroyer · French
foudroyer · rank #76,588 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,588
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,276
- PHOTO-FINISH Fouesnant
Nearest frequency peer: Fouesnant (+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 « foudroyer »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Flunch
Flunch
23,417 corpus weight
- focales
focales
23,415 corpus weight
- foudroyer
foudroyer
23,413 corpus weight
- Fouesnant
Fouesnant
23,412 corpus weight
- fouillait
fouillait
23,411 corpus weight
- fracassantes
fracassantes
23,409 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « foudroyer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | foudroyer |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \fu.dʁwa.je\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #76,588 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « foudroyer » en français
Rare enough to double-check
foudroyer is uncommon French at frequency #76,588 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \fu.dʁwa.je\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
foudroyer has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
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 foudroyer, spelled F-O-U-D-R-O-Y-E-R.
Definition
- 1Frapper de la foudre.
- 2Détruire à l’aide de canons, de bombes, etc.
- 3Démolir un immeuble à l’explosif en le faisant tomber verticalement sur lui-même.
- 4Anéantir ou tuer rapidement.
- 5Terrasser ; interdire ; confondre.
- 6Combattre avec véhémence ; stigmatiser avec éloquence.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how foudroyer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les sabbats ont alors la forme grandiose et terrible de la Messe noire, de l’office à l’envers, où Jésus est défié, prié de foudroyer, s’il peut.
En juillet 1926, le fils d'un cultivateur de Roizy (Ardennes), M. Surply et son ouvrier, M. Bertrand, étaient foudroyés dans les circonstances suivantes : Les deux hommes ramenant des champs un attelage chargé de foin, avaient été surpris par un orage à l'entrée du village et foudroyés, ainsi que les trois chevaux de l'attelage.
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); 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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "foudroyer", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).