gribouille
\ɡʁi.buj\
The verdict
“gribouille” is uncommon French (frequency #66,771 among 2,617 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,771
- frequency rank, French
- 2,617
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Niais qui, par crainte d’un mal, se jette dans un pire.
Corpus desk
Index FR-gribouille · gribouille · French
gribouille · rank #66,771 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #66,771
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,617
- PHOTO-FINISH Grenadines
Nearest frequency peer: Grenadines (-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 « gribouille »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- goujat
goujat
33,233 corpus weight
- Granet
Granet
33,232 corpus weight
- Grenadines
Grenadines
33,231 corpus weight
- gribouille
gribouille
33,230 corpus weight
- grupo
grupo
33,229 corpus weight
- Guelma
Guelma
33,227 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « gribouille » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gribouille |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡʁi.buj\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #66,771 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « gribouille » en français
Rare enough to double-check
gribouille is uncommon French at frequency #66,771 among 2,617 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡʁi.buj\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Niais qui, par crainte d’un mal, se jette dans un pire.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for gribouille, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is gribouille, spelled G-R-I-B-O-U-I-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Niais qui, par crainte d’un mal, se jette dans un pire.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gribouille appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
(Par antiphrase) Fin comme Gribouille.
Quiconque défend la République au nom de l’autorité est un Gribouille de l’Empire.
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 "gribouille"?
What does "gribouille" mean?
How do you pronounce "gribouille"?
What language does "gribouille" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gribouille", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).