merdouille
French, noun\mɛʁ.duj\
merdouille is spelled M-E-R-D-O-U-I-L-L-E (10 letters) and appears about once in every 9 million words in written French, the 100,007th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Merdouille is a French feminine noun meaning “deprecative substitute for something deliberately not mentioned or whose name is not known but easily inferred from the context…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Substitut dépréciatif à un nom que l’on ne souhaite pas préciser, mais qui se déduit d’après le contexte”.
What does merdouille mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineinformaldeprecative substitute for something deliberately not mentioned or whose name is not known but easily inferred from the context; thingamajig, thingy
interjection
- 1
informaltoned-down or humorous alternative to merde; shit!, crap!
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Substitut dépréciatif à un nom que l’on ne souhaite pas préciser, mais qui se déduit d’après le contexte.
interjection: 1. Exclamation de colère, d’irritation ou de surprise.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of merdouille
- merdouilles plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce merdouille?
- \mɛʁ.duj\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is merdouille in French?
merdouille appears about once in every 9 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).