homme de lettres
\ɔm də lɛtʁ\
The verdict
“homme de lettres” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Écrivain ; littérateur.
Corpus desk
Index FR-homme-de-lettres · homme de lettres · French
homme de lettres · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" 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 | homme de lettres |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɔm də lɛtʁ\ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « homme de lettres » en français
Rare enough to double-check
homme de lettres is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɔm də lɛtʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Écrivain ; littérateur.".
homme de lettres has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is homme de lettres, spelled H-O-M-M-E- -D-E- -L-E-T-T-R-E-S.
Definition
- 1Écrivain ; littérateur.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how homme de lettres appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Un homme de lettres, pour peu qu’il ait de réputation, est un Hercule qui combat des hydres ; prêtez-moi votre massue, j’ai plus de courage que de force.
Quoique très instruite, elle n'avoit ni les caprices, ni l’humeur qu'on attribue aux gens de lettres, qui tantôt se livrent à une loquacité importune, tantôt se renferment dans un silence méprisant.
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.