noyer le poisson
\nwa.je lə pwa.sɔ̃\
The verdict
“noyer le poisson” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fatiguer un poisson pris à la ligne, avant de le tirer de l’eau.
Corpus desk
Index FR-noyer-le-poisson · noyer le poisson · French
noyer le poisson · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | noyer le poisson |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \nwa.je lə pwa.sɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « noyer le poisson » en français
Rare enough to double-check
noyer le poisson is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \nwa.je lə pwa.sɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for noyer le poisson, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is noyer le poisson, spelled N-O-Y-E-R- -L-E- -P-O-I-S-S-O-N.
Definition
- 1Fatiguer un poisson pris à la ligne, avant de le tirer de l’eau.
- 2Ne pas aborder un thème tabou ou un sujet difficile, le dissimuler sous un monceau de détails.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how noyer le poisson appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Quand tu as pris une belle perche, un brochet de poids et que tu le files derrière ton bateau, comment appelles-tu ça ? Noyer le poisson ?… Tout juste !
18 mai 43 – On parle petits fours, préséances, cortège, voile, moyens de transports, etc. Tout cela parce que nous voulons habiter ensemble ? Le poisson est complètement noyé. L’accessoire envahit tout ; le détail masque l’essentiel.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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.