lieu

/\ljø\/ noun

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#221

in French word usage

Misspellings

4

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

lieu is aFrenchnoun. It means: Portion de l’espace, soit prise en elle-même, soit considérée par rapport à ce qui l’occupe. Pronounced \ljø\. It ranks #221 in French word frequency. Often confused with Lu and lit.

Key facts for lieu
PropertyValue
Headwordlieu
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ljø\
Letters4
Frequency rank#221
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of lieu in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for lieu is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ljø\. Corpus data places it at rank #221 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 4 documented wrong-spelling variants for lieu, with forms such as "ileu", "leiu", and "liue". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Lu", "lit", "lis", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is lieu, spelled L-I-E-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Portion de l’espace, soit prise en elle-même, soit considérée par rapport à ce qui l’occupe.
  2. 2
    Il se dit aussi par rapport à la destination.
  3. 3
    Endroit désigné ou indiqué.
  4. 4
    Appartement ; différentes pièces d’un bien immobilier.
  5. 5
    (Au pluriel) Lieu d’aisance, latrines.
  6. 6
    Objet d’étude de la topologie.
  7. 7
    Objet d’étude de la topographie.
  8. 8
    Point du ciel auquel répond une planète, une comète.
  9. 9
    Place, rang.
  10. 10
    Place, rang.
  11. 11
    Maison ou famille, comme dans ces phrases :
  12. 12
    Endroit, temps convenable pour dire, pour faire quelque chose.
  13. 13
    Moyen, sujet, occasion. → voir avoir lieu et avoir lieu de
  14. 14
    Passage d’un livre.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ileu,leiu,liue,llieu

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for lieu

Misspelling Variants of "lieu"

ileu4leiu4liue4llieu5
Misspelling Variants of "lieu"

Frequency rank: #221 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lieu"?
"lieu" is spelled L-I-E-U. The IPA pronunciation is \ljø\.
What does "lieu" mean?
As a noun, "lieu" means: Portion de l’espace, soit prise en elle-même, soit considérée par rapport à ce qui l’occupe.
What words are commonly confused with "lieu"?
"lieu" is commonly confused with "Lu", "lit", "lis". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "lieu"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lieu" is \ljø\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "lieu" come from?
"lieu" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter L in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.