fourvoyer
\fuʁ.vwa.je\
The verdict
“fourvoyer” is uncommon French (frequency #92,747 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #92,747
- frequency rank, French
- 3,276
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Égarer, détourner du bon chemin.
Corpus desk
Index FR-fourvoyer · fourvoyer · French
fourvoyer · rank #92,747 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #92,747
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,276
- PHOTO-FINISH foultitude
Nearest frequency peer: foultitude (-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 « fourvoyer »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- foresta
foresta
7,257 corpus weight
- fouineur
fouineur
7,256 corpus weight
- foultitude
foultitude
7,255 corpus weight
- fourvoyer
fourvoyer
7,254 corpus weight
- FPE
FPE
7,253 corpus weight
- Frameries
Frameries
7,252 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « fourvoyer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fourvoyer |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \fuʁ.vwa.je\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #92,747 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « fourvoyer » en français
Rare enough to double-check
fourvoyer is uncommon French at frequency #92,747 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \fuʁ.vwa.je\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
fourvoyer doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 fourvoyer, spelled F-O-U-R-V-O-Y-E-R.
Definition
- 1Égarer, détourner du bon chemin.
- 2Tromper, égarer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fourvoyer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Aussi avait-il mis en usage pour les fourvoyer toutes les ruses que lui fournissait son esprit inventif : faisant des détours sans nombre, revenant incessamment sur ses pas ; ….
Les paysans sortirent le fusil à la main pour reconnaître la cause de cette alerte nocturne, et, ayant vu que nous étions d’honnêtes voyageurs fourvoyés, ils nous proposèrent poliment d’entrer nous reposer dans la ferme.
Synonyms
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 "fourvoyer", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).