lucre

\lykʁ\

/\lykʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“lucre” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
5
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Gain, avantage, profit tiré d'une activité quelconque.

Corpus desk

Index FR-lucre · lucre · French

lucre · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "L" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for lucre
PropertyValue
Headwordlucre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\lykʁ\
Letters5
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “lucre” se place dans la fréquence du français

lucrereste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

lucre is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \lykʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for lucre, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is lucre, spelled L-U-C-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Gain, avantage, profit tiré d'une activité quelconque.
  2. 2
    Profit plus ou moins licite que l’on recherche dans une entreprise.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Arme offensive ou défensive, la procédure n'est plus pour lui, comme autrefois, un objet de lucre.
  2. Il fut le promoteur de la loi Claudia, destinée à contenir chez les sénateurs l’esprit de lucre dont ils se laissaient envahir […]

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lucre"?
"lucre" is spelled L-U-C-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \lykʁ\.
What does "lucre" mean?
As a noun, "lucre" means: Gain, avantage, profit tiré d'une activité quelconque.
How do you pronounce "lucre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lucre" is \lykʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "lucre" come from?
"lucre" 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.

What to do next

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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list