hôtel de ville
^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl də vil\
The verdict
“hôtel de ville” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Bâtiment où se tient l’administration d’une municipalité, commune ou ville.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hôtel de ville |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | ^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl də vil\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hôtel de ville” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for hôtel de ville is 14 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as ^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl də vil\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for hôtel de ville in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is hôtel de ville, spelled H-Ô-T-E-L- -D-E- -V-I-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Bâtiment où se tient l’administration d’une municipalité, commune ou ville.
- 2Administration de cette municipalité, commune ou ville.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “hôtel de ville”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is H-Ô-T-E-L- -D-E- -V-I-L-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as ^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl də vil\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.