miaou

\mja.u\

/\mja.u\/ onomatopoeia

The verdict

“miaou” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #48,045. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#48,045
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
16
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Onomatopée qui exprime le cri du chat ; bruit du miaulement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-miaou · miaou · French

miaou · rank #48,045 · 5 variants · 16 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #48,045
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 16 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH meringue

Nearest frequency peer: meringue (-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 « miaou »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « miaou » 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).

miaou vs mou
60% similar
miaou vs mio
60% similar
miaou vs milo
60% similar

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

Key facts for miaou
PropertyValue
Headwordmiaou
LanguageFrench
Part of speechOnomatopoeia
IPA\mja.u\
Letters5
Frequency rank#48,045
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs16
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « miaou »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.miaouse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « meringue » (#48,044), « mercis » (#48,043), « militarisation » (#48,047). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « miaou » est au #48,045. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around miaou (IPA \mja.u\), anonomatopoeia. Corpus frequency is #48,045 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Onomatopée qui exprime le cri du chat ; bruit du miaulement.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for miaou, with forms such as "imaou", "maiou", and "miauo". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "mou", "mio", "milo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is miaou, spelled M-I-A-O-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Onomatopée qui exprime le cri du chat ; bruit du miaulement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il y avait une sorte de supplication touchante et furieuse dans l’accent plaintif et rageur des sempiternels miaou qu’il poussait de seconde en seconde, tantôt s’étirant sur ses pattes comme pour assouplir son corps et pour aiguiser ses griffes, tantôt courbant l’échine à la manière de ces bons apôtres, qui pour obtenir quelque faveur, vous saluent obséqu…
  2. Sans boire ni manger, elle faisait des retraites prolongées sur le haut des murs, immobile pendant des journées entières à la même place, ne répondant à tous nos appels que par des regards attendris et de plaintifs petits « miaou ».

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • imaou
  • maiou
  • miauo
  • mioau
  • mmiaou

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of miaou - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

imaou2maiou2miauo2mioau2mmiaou1
Edit distance from "miaou"

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 "miaou"?
"miaou" is spelled M-I-A-O-U. The IPA pronunciation is \mja.u\.
What does "miaou" mean?
As an onomatopoeia, "miaou" means: Onomatopée qui exprime le cri du chat ; bruit du miaulement.
What words are commonly confused with "miaou"?
"miaou" is commonly confused with "mou", "mio", "milo". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "miaou"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "miaou" is \mja.u\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "miaou" come from?
"miaou" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "miaou", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Similar misspelling depth

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list