huppe

^((h aspiré))\yp\

/^((h aspiré))\yp\/ noun

The verdict

“huppe” is uncommon French (frequency #69,908 among 1,969 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,908
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Touffe de plumes que certains oiseaux ont sur la tête.

Corpus desk

Index FR-huppe · huppe · French

huppe · rank #69,908 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,908
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH hormonales

Nearest frequency peer: hormonales (-2 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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « huppe »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « huppe » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for huppe
PropertyValue
Headwordhuppe
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA^((h aspiré))\yp\
Letters5
Frequency rank#69,908
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « huppe » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).huppetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « hormonales » (#69,906), « hémisphérique » (#69,910), « horizontalité » (#69,905). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « huppe » est au #69,908. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

huppe is uncommon French at frequency #69,908 among 1,969 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed ^((h aspiré))\yp\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for huppe in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is huppe, spelled H-U-P-P-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Touffe de plumes que certains oiseaux ont sur la tête.
  2. 2
    Nom vernaculaire de différents oiseaux de l'ordre des bucérotiformes de couleur orangée et zébrés noir et blanc, possédant une huppe sur la tête (genre Upupa).
  3. 3
    Foyer de pourriture qui se trouve dans une pièce de bois.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Sa huppe [de l’oiseau-mouche huppé, Ornismyia ornata, Lesson] est comme une émeraude du plus grand brillant ; c’est ce qui le distingue ; le reste de son plumage est assez obscur.
  2. Ce fut sur ce tombeau [de Térée] que la huppe parut pour la première fois ; on en conclut que Térée avait été changé en cet oiseau.

Synonyms

coq merdeuxcoq puantbécasse d'arbrebécasse perchanteputputputpupupupuputcrêtehouppetoupet

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); 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 "huppe"?
"huppe" is spelled H-U-P-P-E. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h aspiré))\yp\.
What does "huppe" mean?
As a noun, "huppe" means: Touffe de plumes que certains oiseaux ont sur la tête.
How do you pronounce "huppe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "huppe" is ^((h aspiré))\yp\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "huppe" come from?
"huppe" 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 "huppe", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list