gauche
\ɡoʃ\
The verdict
“gauche” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #448 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #448
- frequency rank, French
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui se trouve du côté ouest quand on fait face au nord (dans le cas où on parle de soi, car on utilise cet adjectif en adoptant le point de vue de la personne dont on parle). Qui se trouve du côté ...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gauche |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ɡoʃ\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #448 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gauche” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for gauche is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɡoʃ\. Corpus data places it at rank #448 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for gauche, with forms such as "aguche", "gacuhe", and "gaucche". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "gaule", "Gaulle", "gaucho", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is gauche, spelled G-A-U-C-H-E.
Definition
- 1Qui se trouve du côté ouest quand on fait face au nord (dans le cas où on parle de soi, car on utilise cet adjectif en adoptant le point de vue de la personne dont on parle). Qui se trouve du côté de son cœur pour la majorité des êtres humains, ou encore du côté opposé à celui de la main qui sert à écrire chez la majorité
- 2Qualifie la partie d’un bâtiment où l’on distingue deux parties, dont l’une répond au côté droit de l’homme, adossé à la façade du bâtiment, et l’autre au côté gauche.
- 3Qualifie la partie d’une armée, d’une troupe qui se trouve du côté gauche dans le sens de la marche vers l’ennemi.
- 4Qualifie la rive d’une rivière du côté gauche de celui qui en descendrait le cours.
- 5Partie, de l’extrémité d’un objet qui répond au côté gauche du spectateur placé en face.
- 6Qui est gêné, contraint, sans grâce.
- 7Qui est maladroit.
- 8Qui est de travers, mal fait, mal formé ou qui a cessé d’être rectiligne.
- 9Qualifie aussi certaines formes cristallines dissymétriques et non superposables.
- 10Qualifie une surface qui n’est pas plane, comme par exemple une tôle pliée ou une face bombée.
- 11Qui n’est pas coplanaire.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aguche,gacuhe,gaucche,gauceh,gauchhe,gauhce,ggauche,guache
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gauche - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Using “gauche”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is G-A-U-C-H-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɡoʃ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “gaule” - see the side-by-side comparison. gauche vs gaule
- 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.