fouille-merde

\fuj.mɛʁd\

/\fuj.mɛʁd\/ noun

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

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency French
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Nom vulgaire de plusieurs insectes coléoptères coprophages, qu’on trouve dans les champs sous les bouses de vache.

Key facts for fouille-merde
PropertyValue
Headwordfouille-merde
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fuj.mɛʁd\
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “fouille-merde” sits in French frequency

fouille-merde 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

fouille-merde is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \fuj.mɛʁd\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for fouille-merde in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. 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 explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is fouille-merde, spelled F-O-U-I-L-L-E---M-E-R-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom vulgaire de plusieurs insectes coléoptères coprophages, qu’on trouve dans les champs sous les bouses de vache.
  2. 2
    Personne qui se mêle de ce qui ne la regarde pas ; ou selon le point de vue, personne qui enquête sur des affaires douteuses.

Synonyms

bousierescarbotfouille-au-trainindiscret

This word in other languages

muckraker(English)

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 "fouille-merde"?
"fouille-merde" is spelled F-O-U-I-L-L-E---M-E-R-D-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fuj.mɛʁd\.
What does "fouille-merde" mean?
As a noun, "fouille-merde" means: Nom vulgaire de plusieurs insectes coléoptères coprophages, qu’on trouve dans les champs sous les bouses de vache.
How do you pronounce "fouille-merde"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fouille-merde" is \fuj.mɛʁd\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fouille-merde" come from?
"fouille-merde" 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 “fouille-merde”

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

  • The one correct French spelling is F-O-U-I-L-L-E---M-E-R-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \fuj.mɛʁd\ (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