ondoyer
\ɔ̃.dwa.je\
The verdict
“ondoyer” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Remuer, se mouvoir à la manière des ondes, de façon sinueuse.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ondoyer · ondoyer · French
ondoyer · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" 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 | ondoyer |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ɔ̃.dwa.je\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « ondoyer » en français
Rare enough to double-check
ondoyer is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \ɔ̃.dwa.je\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ondoyer, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is ondoyer, spelled O-N-D-O-Y-E-R.
Definition
- 1Remuer, se mouvoir à la manière des ondes, de façon sinueuse.
- 2Croître et décroître successivement.
- 3Manquer de constance, de fermeté dans ses opinions, adopter avec souplesse des positions différentes, des attitudes diverses.
- 4Baptiser, répandre de l’eau sur la tête de quelqu’un, au nom des trois personnes de la sainte Trinité, sans observer les autres cérémonies du baptême.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ondoyer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les flammes ondoient.
On voyait la fumée ondoyer.
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.