grotesque

/\ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\/ adj

Letters

9 characters

Frequency Rank

#16,143

in French word usage

Misspellings

13

tracked variants

Confusables

1

similar word pairs

grotesque is anFrenchadj. It means: Très orné, voire ampoulé, à la manière des fresques romaines découvertes à la Renaissance. Pronounced \ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\. Often confused with grotesques.

Key facts for grotesque
PropertyValue
Headwordgrotesque
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\
Letters9
Frequency rank#16,143
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of grotesque in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for grotesque is 9 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\. Corpus data places it at rank #16,143 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for grotesque, with forms such as "ggrotesque", "gortesque", and "groetsque". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "grotesques", 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 spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is grotesque, spelled G-R-O-T-E-S-Q-U-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Très orné, voire ampoulé, à la manière des fresques romaines découvertes à la Renaissance.
  2. 2
    Bizarre ; extravagant ; invraisemblable.
  3. 3
    Bouffon, excentrique, burlesque, caricatural, cocasse ou risible.
  4. 4
    Outrancier et de mauvais goût.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ggrotesque,gortesque,groetsque,groteqsue,grotesqeu,grotesqque,grotessque,grotesuqe,grotseque,grottesque,grrotesque,grtoesque,rgotesque

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for grotesque

Misspelling Variants of "grotesque"

ggrotesque10gortesque9groetsque9groteqsue9grotesqeu9grotesqque10grotessque10grotesuqe9
Misspelling Variants of "grotesque"

Frequency rank: #16,143 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "grotesque"?
"grotesque" is spelled G-R-O-T-E-S-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\.
What does "grotesque" mean?
As an adj, "grotesque" means: Très orné, voire ampoulé, à la manière des fresques romaines découvertes à la Renaissance.
What words are commonly confused with "grotesque"?
"grotesque" is commonly confused with "grotesques". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "grotesque"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "grotesque" is \ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "grotesque" come from?
"grotesque" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter G in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.