nouveau

/\nu.vo\/ adj

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#191

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

nouveau is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui n’existait pas auparavant, avant telle date donnée, avec rien de pareil ni de comparable. Pronounced \nu.vo\. It ranks #191 in French word frequency. Often confused with nouvel and nouveaux.

Key facts for nouveau
PropertyValue
Headwordnouveau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\nu.vo\
Letters7
Frequency rank#191
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of nouveau in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for nouveau is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, 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". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.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 explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is nouveau, spelled N-O-U-V-E-A-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui n’existait pas auparavant, avant telle date donnée, avec rien de pareil ni de comparable.
  2. 2
    Que l’on n’avait jamais vu auparavant.
  3. 3
    Qui tire de son caractère récent une valeur de création, d’invention, un sentiment de nouveauté intrinsèque.
  4. 4
    Nouveau pour quelqu’un ; qui était jusqu’ici inconnu de lui ; dont il n’a pas l’habitude.
  5. 5
    En parlant d’un vin : ayant subi une très courte vinification, et consommé moins d’un an après la récolte.
  6. 6
    Qui n’a pas d’expérience ou d’habitude ; sans ancienneté.
  7. 7
    Autre, qui succède à un moment donné à un être ou à une chose de même ordre.
  8. 8
    Ressemblant, semblable, en conformité, dans une suite temporelle, avec une autre personne ou une autre chose.
  9. 9
    De plus, supplémentaire.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: nnouveau,nouevau,nouvaeu,nouveua,nouvveau,novueau,nuoveau,onuveau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for nouveau

Misspelling Variants of "nouveau"

nnouveau8nouevau7nouvaeu7nouveua7nouvveau8novueau7nuoveau7onuveau7
Misspelling Variants of "nouveau"

Frequency rank: #191 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "nouveau"?
"nouveau" is spelled N-O-U-V-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \nu.vo\.
What does "nouveau" mean?
As an adj, "nouveau" means: Qui n’existait pas auparavant, avant telle date donnée, avec rien de pareil ni de comparable.
What words are commonly confused with "nouveau"?
"nouveau" is commonly confused with "nouvel", "nouveaux", "nouveauté". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "nouveau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "nouveau" is \nu.vo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "nouveau" come from?
"nouveau" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter N in our French index:

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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.