furet

\fy.ʁɛ\

/\fy.ʁɛ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“furet” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #28,567. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#28,567
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit carnivore de la famille des mustélidés, forme domestique (Mustela putorius furo) du putois (Mustela putorius putorius).

Corpus desk

Index FR-furet · furet · French

furet · rank #28,567 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,567
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH frégates

Nearest frequency peer: frégates (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « furet »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « furet » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

furet vs fût
40% similar
furet vs fury
60% similar
furet vs fuse
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for furet
PropertyValue
Headwordfuret
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fy.ʁɛ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#28,567
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « furet »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.furetse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « frégates » (#28,566), « fâcheux » (#28,568), « fournissait » (#28,565). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « furet » est au #28,567. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around furet (IPA \fy.ʁɛ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #28,567 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for furet, with forms such as "ffuret", "fruet", and "fuert". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fût", "fury", "fuse", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is furet, spelled F-U-R-E-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit carnivore de la famille des mustélidés, forme domestique (Mustela putorius furo) du putois (Mustela putorius putorius).
  2. 2
    Personne rusée qui furète.
  3. 3
    Jeu populaire chez les enfants.
  4. 4
    Rôle tenu par un des joueurs dans le jeu du même nom.
  5. 5
    Ensemble comprenant un tube convoyeur reliant un laboratoire à une source d’irradiation, dans lequel est propulsée une navette contenant des échantillons à irradier à des fins expérimentales.
  6. 6
    Outil à embout en queue de cochon monté sur un flexible, qu’on introduit dans un tuyau pour le désobstruer

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais les roches les plus écartées ne purent servir d'asile aux malheureux lapins ; les Jerseyens les-y suivirent avec leurs furets, et les derniers descendants de cette population, jadis si nombreuse, disparaissent chaque jour un à un, grâce à ce terrible moyen de destruction.
  2. Le furet qui rivalisait de fidélité avec le chien, et dont son maître ne parle qu’avec des larmes dans les yeux, était presque toujours une furette.

Synonyms

vrille à déboucher

This word in other languages

ferret(English)hurón(Español)Frettchen(Deutsch)furão(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ffuret
  • fruet
  • fuert
  • furett
  • furret
  • furte
  • ufret

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of furet - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

ffuret1fruet2fuert2furett1furret1furte2ufret2
Edit distance from "furet"

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 "furet"?
"furet" is spelled F-U-R-E-T. The IPA pronunciation is \fy.ʁɛ\.
What does "furet" mean?
As a noun, "furet" means: Petit carnivore de la famille des mustélidés, forme domestique (Mustela putorius furo) du putois (Mustela putorius putorius).
What words are commonly confused with "furet"?
"furet" is commonly confused with "fût", "fury", "fuse". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "furet"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "furet" is \fy.ʁɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "furet" come from?
"furet" 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 "furet", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

garda#28,570Farid#28,553Haley#28,584Erwan#28,543

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

groove7 variantsEmilio7 variantsdoser7 variantsJamel7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list