gueux comme un rat d’église
\ɡø kɔ.m‿œ̃ ʁa d‿e.ɡliz\
The verdict
“gueux comme un rat d’église” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 27
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Très pauvre, en parlant d’un homme.
Corpus desk
Index FR-gueux-comme-un-rat-d-egl · gueux comme un rat d’église · French
gueux comme un rat d’église · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 27 letters
- VOW-10 10 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gueux comme un rat d’église |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ɡø kɔ.m‿œ̃ ʁa d‿e.ɡliz\ |
| Letters | 27 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « gueux comme un rat d’église » en français
Rare enough to double-check
gueux comme un rat d’église is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ɡø kɔ.m‿œ̃ ʁa d‿e.ɡliz\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Très pauvre, en parlant d’un homme.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for gueux comme un rat d’église in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is gueux comme un rat d’église, spelled G-U-E-U-X- -C-O-M-M-E- -U-N- -R-A-T- -D-’-É-G-L-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1Très pauvre, en parlant d’un homme.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gueux comme un rat d’église appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Antoine était domestique chez un paysan qui avait très bon cœur, mais qui était gueux comme un rat d’église.
Vers ce temps-là, dit Christian, (pauvre) comme un rat d’église, je m’étais réfugié dans les combles d’une vieille maison de la rue des Minnesœnger, à Nuremberg.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.