glu

\ɡly\

/\ɡly\/ noun

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

The verdict

“glu” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #47,358) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#47,358
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Colle végétale extraite du houx, du gui, des baies de genêt, dont on se sert surtout pour prendre les oiseaux.

Corpus desk

Index FR-glu · glu · French

glu · rank #47,358 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #47,358
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH giselle

Nearest frequency peer: giselle (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « glu »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « glu » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

glu vs go
33% similar
glu vs GR
0% similar
glu vs GT
0% similar

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

Key facts for glu
PropertyValue
Headwordglu
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɡly\
Letters3
Frequency rank#47,358
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « glu »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).gluse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « giselle » (#47,357), « gobe » (#47,359), « geôles » (#47,356). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « glu » est au #47,358. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for glu is neighbouring look-alikes ("go", "GR", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɡly\. Frequency #47,358 among 2,617 “G” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

glu has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "go", "GR", "GT", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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 glu, spelled G-L-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Colle végétale extraite du houx, du gui, des baies de genêt, dont on se sert surtout pour prendre les oiseaux.
  2. 2
    Matière visqueuse tendant à prendre au piège.
  3. 3
    Programme permettant de faire fonctionner ensemble d’autres programmes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Cependant le nommé Ignace Mélisse étoit accusé, le 26 mai, devant la cour d'assises de l'Ain, d'avoir volé, à l'aide d'une baguette imprégnée de glu , l'argent qui se trouvoit dans le tronc de l'église de Saint-André-de-Corcy.
  2. Lady Macduff. Pauvre oiseau! tu n’as jamais redouté le filet, le piège, le trébuchet ni la glu.

This word in other languages

birdlime(English)liga(Español)Leim(Deutsch)

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 "glu"?
"glu" is spelled G-L-U. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡly\.
What does "glu" mean?
As a noun, "glu" means: Colle végétale extraite du houx, du gui, des baies de genêt, dont on se sert surtout pour prendre les oiseaux.
What words are commonly confused with "glu"?
"glu" is commonly confused with "go", "GR", "GT". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "glu"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "glu" is \ɡly\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "glu" come from?
"glu" 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 "glu", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ifs#47,386ela#47,314Ivo#47,402kao#47,406

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list