glou

\ɡlu\

/\ɡlu\/ onomatopoeia

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

The verdict

“glou” is uncommon French (frequency #73,191 among 2,617 “G” headwords), classed as an onomatopoeia. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,191
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bruit de l'eau.

Corpus desk

Index FR-glou · glou · French

glou · rank #73,191 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,191
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH glissera

Nearest frequency peer: glissera (-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 « glou »

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 « glou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for glou
PropertyValue
Headwordglou
LanguageFrench
Part of speechOnomatopoeia
IPA\ɡlu\
Letters4
Frequency rank#73,191
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « glou » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.gloutombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « glissera » (#73,190), « gondi » (#73,192), « gita » (#73,189). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « glou » est au #73,191. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

glou is uncommon French at frequency #73,191 among 2,617 “G” headwords, classed as anonomatopoeia, transcribed \ɡlu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for glou, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is glou, spelled G-L-O-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bruit de l'eau.
  2. 2
    Cri du dindon.
  3. 3
    Onomatopée exprimant un gloussement de rire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ah ! comme les parois de glace sont glissantes à mes doigts qui cherchent… Nous tournons encore !… Nous enfonçons… Un dernier effort !… Un dernier cri !… Erik !… Christine !… glou, glou, glou !… dans les oreilles !… glou, glou, glou !… au fond de l’eau noire, nos oreilles font glouglou !…
  2. Pourquoi ne ris-tu pas avec nous ? dit le dindon. Est-ce que ma question ne te semble pas spirituelle ? Peut-être elle est au-dessus de ton intelligence. Hélas ! quel esprit borné ! Allons, laissons-la, et soyons intéressants pour nous-mêmes seulement. » Là-dessus il fit glou, glou, glou, et les canards firent coin, coin

This word in other languages

gulp(English)glup(Español)

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 "glou"?
"glou" is spelled G-L-O-U. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡlu\.
What does "glou" mean?
As an onomatopoeia, "glou" means: Bruit de l'eau.
How do you pronounce "glou"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "glou" is \ɡlu\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "glou" come from?
"glou" 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 "glou", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

gita#73,189gull#73,212fath#73,161Hass#73,222

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list