orpailleur
French, noun/ɔʁ.pa.jœʁ/
orpailleur is spelled O-R-P-A-I-L-L-E-U-R (10 letters) and appears about once in every 20 million words in written French, the 146,077th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Orpailleur is a French masculine noun meaning “gold prospector, gold panner, one who pans for gold” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Celui qui recueille les paillettes d’or qui se trouvent dans le sable de certaines rivières, au moyen du…”.
What does orpailleur mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinegold prospector, gold panner, one who pans for gold
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Celui qui recueille les paillettes d’or qui se trouvent dans le sable de certaines rivières, au moyen du lavage, et qui exerce le métier minier de la recherche de l’or.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of orpailleur
- orpailleurs plural
- orpailleuse feminine
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce orpailleur?
- /ɔʁ.pa.jœʁ/
- \ɔʁ.pa.jœʁ\
- [ɔʁ.pa.jœʁ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is orpailleur in French?
orpailleur appears about once in every 20 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).