genou

\ʒə.nu\

/\ʒə.nu\/ noun

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

The verdict

“genou” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,301. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#6,301
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
17
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Articulation joignant la jambe à la cuisse chez l’être humain.

Corpus desk

Index FR-genou · genou · French

genou · rank #6,301 · 6 variants · 17 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,301
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 17 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH fiscalité

Nearest frequency peer: fiscalité (-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 « genou »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « genou » 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).

genou vs gnu
60% similar
genou vs gens
60% similar
genou vs Gent
40% similar

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

Key facts for genou
PropertyValue
Headwordgenou
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʒə.nu\
Letters5
Frequency rank#6,301
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs17
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « genou »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.genouse 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 « fiscalité » (#6,300), « grandir » (#6,302), « finissent » (#6,299). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « genou » est au #6,301. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around genou (IPA \ʒə.nu\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,301 among 2,617 “G” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for genou, with forms such as "egnou", "gennou", and "genuo". 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 17 confusable-pair relationships, "gnu", "gens", "Gent", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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 genou, spelled G-E-N-O-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Articulation joignant la jambe à la cuisse chez l’être humain.
  2. 2
    (Sur les genoux) Giron.
  3. 3
    La partie du vêtement qui le couvre.
  4. 4
    Se dit aussi en parlant de quelques animaux quadrupèdes : articulation du carpe joignant l’avant-bras et le canon.
  5. 5
    Joint articulé.
  6. 6
    Tête complètement chauve.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Parfois, il la priait de chanter. Alors, couché près de Yasmina, il mettait sa tête sur ses genoux et, les yeux clos, il s’abandonnait à une rêverie imprécise, très douce.
  2. Un livre à demi ouvert sur mes genoux croisés, je suis assis devant la cheminée, où flambe le premier feu de la saison.

This word in other languages

knee(English)rodilla(Español)Knie(Deutsch)joelho(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • egnou
  • gennou
  • genuo
  • geonu
  • ggenou
  • gneou

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of genou - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

egnou2gennou1genuo2geonu2ggenou1gneou2
Edit distance from "genou"

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 "genou"?
"genou" is spelled G-E-N-O-U. The IPA pronunciation is \ʒə.nu\.
What does "genou" mean?
As a noun, "genou" means: Articulation joignant la jambe à la cuisse chez l’être humain.
What words are commonly confused with "genou"?
"genou" is commonly confused with "gnu", "gens", "Gent". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "genou"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "genou" is \ʒə.nu\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "genou" come from?
"genou" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

hello#6,305Jimmy#6,311dormi#6,289Lampe#6,313

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

Karl6 variantscoule6 variantscash6 variantsvolet6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list