froufrou

\fʁu.fʁu\

/\fʁu.fʁu\/ noun

The verdict

“froufrou” is uncommon French (frequency #94,826 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#94,826
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bruit léger produit par le frôlement ou le froissement de quelque chose.

Corpus desk

Index FR-froufrou · froufrou · French

froufrou · rank #94,826 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #94,826
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH Frenchman

Nearest frequency peer: Frenchman (-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 « froufrou »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « froufrou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for froufrou
PropertyValue
Headwordfroufrou
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fʁu.fʁu\
Letters8
Frequency rank#94,826
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « froufrou » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).froufroutombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Frenchman » (#94,825), « fucker » (#94,827), « franchissements » (#94,824). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « froufrou » est au #94,826. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

froufrou is uncommon French at frequency #94,826 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \fʁu.fʁu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for froufrou in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, 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 easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is froufrou, spelled F-R-O-U-F-R-O-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bruit léger produit par le frôlement ou le froissement de quelque chose.
  2. 2
    Ornement de tissu d’un vêtement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il se regardait dans la glace, par-dessus une vieille pendule-Empire, en se passant lui-même en revue, quand le froufrou de la robe de soie lui annonça la baronne. Et il se remit aussitôt en position.
  2. Les robes de soie faisaient froufrou à travers les chaises…

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

How do you spell "froufrou"?
"froufrou" is spelled F-R-O-U-F-R-O-U. The IPA pronunciation is \fʁu.fʁu\.
What does "froufrou" mean?
As a noun, "froufrou" means: Bruit léger produit par le frôlement ou le froissement de quelque chose.
How do you pronounce "froufrou"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "froufrou" is \fʁu.fʁu\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "froufrou" come from?
"froufrou" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "froufrou", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list