miau
\miˈaʊ̯\
The verdict
“miau” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an onomatopoeia - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Miaou (imitation du cri du chat).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | miau |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Onomatopoeia |
| IPA | \miˈaʊ̯\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “miau” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for miau is 4 letters long, classified as an onomatopoeia, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \miˈaʊ̯\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Miaou (imitation du cri du chat).".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for miau, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is miau, spelled M-I-A-U.
Definition
- 1Miaou (imitation du cri du chat).
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
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Using “miau”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is M-I-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \miˈaʊ̯\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.