gnou
\ɡnu\
The verdict
“gnou” is uncommon French (frequency #85,758 among 2,617 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,758
- frequency rank, French
- 2,617
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Une des espèces de grandes antilopes africaines du genre Connochaetes.
Corpus desk
Index FR-gnou · gnou · French
gnou · rank #85,758 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,758
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,617
- PHOTO-FINISH gnous
Nearest frequency peer: gnous (+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 « gnou »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- ghettoïsati…
ghettoïsation
14,246 corpus weight
- gnou
gnou
14,243 corpus weight
- gnous
gnous
14,242 corpus weight
- godfather
godfather
14,241 corpus weight
- Goodall
Goodall
14,239 corpus weight
- graduées
graduées
14,238 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « gnou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gnou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡnu\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #85,758 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « gnou » en français
Rare enough to double-check
gnou is uncommon French at frequency #85,758 among 2,617 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡnu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for gnou, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is gnou, spelled G-N-O-U.
Definition
- 1Une des espèces de grandes antilopes africaines du genre Connochaetes.
- 2Gone, gamin.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gnou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A plusieurs reprises, nous avons mentionné le gnou qui est, et surtout qui était, l'une des antilopes les plus répandues en Afrique orientale.
À midi, nous étions au sommet du téléphérique de l’aiguille du Midi, avec une ambition de gnous en migration : continuer.
This word in other languages
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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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gnou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).