hou
^((h aspiré))\u\
The verdict
“hou” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #26,040) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #26,040
- frequency rank, French
- 1,969
- “H” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Suppose le cri d’un fantôme.
Corpus desk
Index FR-hou · hou · French
hou · rank #26,040 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #26,040
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,969
- PHOTO-FINISH historia
Nearest frequency peer: historia (-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.
Voisins de fréquence du confusable « hou »
Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous
- Helsinki
Helsinki
73,964 corpus weight
- helvétique
helvétique
73,963 corpus weight
- historia
historia
73,962 corpus weight
- hou
hou
73,961 corpus weight
- humbles
humbles
73,960 corpus weight
- hébreux
hébreux
73,959 corpus weight
What this shows Les barres placent « hou » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | ^((h aspiré))\u\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #26,040 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Rang de corpus près des confusables de « hou »
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for hou is neighbouring look-alikes ("hp", "Hs", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u\. Frequency #26,040 among 1,969 “H” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for hou, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hp", "Hs", "hr", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is hou, spelled H-O-U.
Definition
- 1Suppose le cri d’un fantôme.
- 2Onomatopée pour huer ou se moquer de quelqu’un.
- 3Onomatopée pour signifier un doute ou une emphase.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il effrayait les enfants en criant « hou hou ».
Hou qu’ils sont vilains et dégénérés, ces pays riches!
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).