grêlier

\ɡʁɛ.lje\

/\ɡʁɛ.lje\/ noun

The verdict

“grêlier” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ancienne pièce d’artillerie qu’on chargeait de balles et de ferrailles, et qui en chassait comme une grêle, lorsqu’elle était tirée.

Corpus desk

Index FR-grelier · grêlier · French

grêlier · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "G" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for grêlier
PropertyValue
Headwordgrêlier
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɡʁɛ.lje\
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « grêlier » en français

grêlierreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

grêlier is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡʁɛ.lje\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Ancienne pièce d’artillerie qu’on chargeait de balles et de ferrailles, et qui en chassait comme une grêle, lorsqu’elle était tirée.".

grêlier doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 grêlier, spelled G-R-Ê-L-I-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ancienne pièce d’artillerie qu’on chargeait de balles et de ferrailles, et qui en chassait comme une grêle, lorsqu’elle était tirée.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "grêlier"?
"grêlier" is spelled G-R-Ê-L-I-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡʁɛ.lje\.
What does "grêlier" mean?
As a noun, "grêlier" means: Ancienne pièce d’artillerie qu’on chargeait de balles et de ferrailles, et qui en chassait comme une grêle, lorsqu’elle était tirée.
How do you pronounce "grêlier"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "grêlier" is \ɡʁɛ.lje\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "grêlier" come from?
"grêlier" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list