houle

^((h aspiré))\ul\

/^((h aspiré))\ul\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“houle” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #24,236. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#24,236
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mouvement d’ondulation que la mer conserve après une tempête, mais qui l’agite sans bruit et sans former d’écume.

Corpus desk

Index FR-houle · houle · French

houle · rank #24,236 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #24,236
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH Heidegger

Nearest frequency peer: Heidegger (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « houle »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « houle » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

houle vs hue
60% similar
houle vs hull
60% similar
houle vs hulk
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for houle
PropertyValue
Headwordhoule
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA^((h aspiré))\ul\
Letters5
Frequency rank#24,236
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « houle »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).houlese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Heidegger » (#24,235), « houlette » (#24,237), « HTC » (#24,238). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « houle » est au #24,236. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around houle (IPA ^((h aspiré))\ul\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #24,236 among 1,969 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for houle, with forms such as "hhoule", "holue", and "houel". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hue", "hull", "hulk", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is houle, spelled H-O-U-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mouvement d’ondulation que la mer conserve après une tempête, mais qui l’agite sans bruit et sans former d’écume.
  2. 2
    Grosses ondes ou vagues formées par la houle.
  3. 3
    Mouvement ondulant ou ondoyant.
  4. 4
    Fluctuation.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how houle appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. La houle est proprement le creux, la vallée large et quelquefois profonde qui existe entre les crêtes de deux lames que le calme n’a pas encore aplanies.
  2. Un peu de houle agitait le Firecrest sur son ancre, et mes visiteurs furent heureux de regagner la terre ferme.

This word in other languages

surge(English)marejada(Español)Dünung(Deutsch)onda(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hhoule
  • holue
  • houel
  • houlle
  • huole
  • ohule

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of houle - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

hhoule1holue2houel2houlle1huole2ohule2
Edit distance from "houle"

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

How do you spell "houle"?
"houle" is spelled H-O-U-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h aspiré))\ul\.
What does "houle" mean?
As a noun, "houle" means: Mouvement d’ondulation que la mer conserve après une tempête, mais qui l’agite sans bruit et sans former d’écume.
What words are commonly confused with "houle"?
"houle" is commonly confused with "hue", "hull", "hulk". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "houle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "houle" is ^((h aspiré))\ul\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "houle" come from?
"houle" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "houle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Gerry#24,223joins#24,260lande#24,265eagle#24,205

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

hack6 variantsguys6 variantsGent6 variantsdédie6 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list