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fouille

French, noun

fouille is spelled F-O-U-I-L-L-E (7 letters) and appears 5.1 times per million words in written French, the 11,014th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Fouille is a French feminine noun meaning “search (act of searching through something, e.g. a bag, pocket)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of fouiller. With an accent, fouillé is a different word: “past participle of fouiller”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Ouverture que l’on pratique dans la terre pour mettre à découvert ce qui y est enfermé ou pour faire les…”.

What does fouille mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    femininesearch (act of searching through something, e.g. a bag, pocket)

  2. 2

    femininerummage

  3. 3

    feminineexcavation

  4. 4

    femininedelve

verb

  1. 1

    first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive

  2. 2

    second-person singular imperative

verb

as fouillé
  1. 1

    past participle of fouiller

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Ouverture que l’on pratique dans la terre pour mettre à découvert ce qui y est enfermé ou pour faire les fondations d’une maison, pour creuser une mine, un canal, etc. 2. Recherche méthodique dans le sol de traces archéologiques. 3. Opération consistant à sonder les vêtements ou les possessions d’un suspect dans le cadre d’une action policière ou de sécurité en vue de recherche des substances ou articles prohibées. 4. Poche d’un vêtement.

adjective: 1. Exhaustif, complet. 2. Travaillé dans le détail.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of fouille

  • fouilles plural
  • fouillée feminine
  • fouillés masculine plural
  • fouillées feminine plural

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to fouille

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is fouille in French?

fouille appears 5.1 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after fouille