houlette

^((h aspiré))\u.lɛt\

/^((h aspiré))\u.lɛt\/ noun

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

The verdict

“houlette” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #24,237. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#24,237
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bâton que porte un berger et au bout duquel est une plaque de fer faite en forme de gouttière, pour jeter des mottes de terre aux moutons qui s’écartent et les faire revenir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-houlette · houlette · French

houlette · rank #24,237 · 9 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #24,237
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH houle

Nearest frequency peer: houle (-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 « houlette »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « houlette » 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).

houlette vs houleuse
75% similar

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

Key facts for houlette
PropertyValue
Headwordhoulette
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA^((h aspiré))\u.lɛt\
Letters8
Frequency rank#24,237
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « houlette »

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « houle » (#24,236), « HTC » (#24,238), « Heidegger » (#24,235). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « houlette » est au #24,237. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around houlette (IPA ^((h aspiré))\u.lɛt\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #24,237 among 1,969 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for houlette, with forms such as "hhoulette", "holuette", and "houeltte". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "houleuse", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is houlette, spelled H-O-U-L-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Bâton que porte un berger et au bout duquel est une plaque de fer faite en forme de gouttière, pour jeter des mottes de terre aux moutons qui s’écartent et les faire revenir.
  2. 2
    Symbole de l’état de berger, de pasteur.
  3. 3
    Ustensile dont on se sert pour lever de terre les oignons de fleurs.
  4. 4
    Instrument en forme de pelle ou de spatule.
  5. 5
    Crosse d'un évêque.
  6. 6
    Tour de prestidigitation où une carte semble se lever seule d’un paquet de cartes égalisées.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. En parlant ainsi, il fit tourner sa lourde hallebarde pardessus sa tête, avec autant de facilité que l’eût fait un berger avec sa houlette.
  2. Il lui semblait voir et entendre la Pucelle dans toute la rudesse du langage rustique qu’elle devait avoir avant de quitter la houlette pour le glaive.

This word in other languages

crook(English)cayado(Español)Hirtenstab(Deutsch)cajado(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hhoulette
  • holuette
  • houeltte
  • houlete
  • houletet
  • houllette
  • houltete
  • huolette
  • ohulette

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of houlette - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

hhoulette1holuette2houeltte2houlete1houletet2houllette1houltete2huolette2
Edit distance from "houlette"

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 "houlette"?
"houlette" is spelled H-O-U-L-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h aspiré))\u.lɛt\.
What does "houlette" mean?
As a noun, "houlette" means: Bâton que porte un berger et au bout duquel est une plaque de fer faite en forme de gouttière, pour jeter des mottes de terre aux moutons qui s’écartent et les faire revenir.
What words are commonly confused with "houlette"?
"houlette" is commonly confused with "houleuse". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "houlette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "houlette" is ^((h aspiré))\u.lɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "houlette" come from?
"houlette" 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 "houlette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

glucides#24,226fletcher#24,217estimons#24,211kamikaze#24,263

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

Hammond9 variantsguidage9 variantsgitans9 variantsGbagbo9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list