nouveau
\nu.vo\
The verdict
“nouveau” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #191 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #191
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui n’existait pas auparavant, avant telle date donnée, avec rien de pareil ni de comparable.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nouveau |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \nu.vo\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #191 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nouveau” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for nouveau is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \nu.vo\. Corpus data places it at rank #191 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for nouveau, with forms such as "nnouveau", "nouevau", and "nouvaeu". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "nouvel", "nouveaux", "nouveauté", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is nouveau, spelled N-O-U-V-E-A-U.
Definition
- 1Qui n’existait pas auparavant, avant telle date donnée, avec rien de pareil ni de comparable.
- 2Que l’on n’avait jamais vu auparavant.
- 3Qui tire de son caractère récent une valeur de création, d’invention, un sentiment de nouveauté intrinsèque.
- 4Nouveau pour quelqu’un ; qui était jusqu’ici inconnu de lui ; dont il n’a pas l’habitude.
- 5En parlant d’un vin : ayant subi une très courte vinification, et consommé moins d’un an après la récolte.
- 6Qui n’a pas d’expérience ou d’habitude ; sans ancienneté.
- 7Autre, qui succède à un moment donné à un être ou à une chose de même ordre.
- 8Ressemblant, semblable, en conformité, dans une suite temporelle, avec une autre personne ou une autre chose.
- 9De plus, supplémentaire.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nnouveau,nouevau,nouvaeu,nouveua,nouvveau,novueau,nuoveau,onuveau
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of nouveau - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "nouveau"?
What does "nouveau" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "nouveau"?
How do you pronounce "nouveau"?
What language does "nouveau" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “nouveau”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is N-O-U-V-E-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \nu.vo\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “nouvel” - see the side-by-side comparison. nouveau vs nouvel
- 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.