ouai

\wɛ\

/\wɛ\/ intj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ouai” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #6,536) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#6,536
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords
3
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Variante orthographique de ouais.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ouai · ouai · French

ouai · rank #6,536 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,536
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 3 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH officielles

Nearest frequency peer: officielles (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « ouai »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « ouai » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ouai vs oui
75% similar
ouai vs out
50% similar
ouai vs ouf
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ouai
PropertyValue
Headwordouai
LanguageFrench
Part of speechInterjection
IPA\wɛ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#6,536
Misspellings tracked3
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « ouai »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).ouaise place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « officielles » (#6,535), « partiel » (#6,537), « oeufs » (#6,534). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « ouai » est au #6,536. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ouai is neighbouring look-alikes ("oui", "out", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced \wɛ\. Frequency #6,536 among 1,642 “O” headwords. Gloss: "Variante orthographique de ouais.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for ouai, with forms such as "oaui", "ouia", and "uoai". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "oui", "out", "ouf", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is ouai, spelled O-U-A-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Variante orthographique de ouais.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ouai appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. L’eau potable ?… ouai !… ouai !…
  2. Ouai, le vieux du corridor, je fais la collection moi, mais monte un peu au bureau, j’en ai une dizaine, regarde…

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oaui
  • ouia
  • uoai

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ouai - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

oaui2ouia2uoai2
Edit distance from "ouai"

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 "ouai"?
"ouai" is spelled O-U-A-I. The IPA pronunciation is \wɛ\.
What does "ouai" mean?
As an interjection, "ouai" means: Variante orthographique de ouais.
What words are commonly confused with "ouai"?
"ouai" is commonly confused with "oui", "out", "ouf". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ouai"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ouai" is \wɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ouai" come from?
"ouai" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ouai", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

nuls#6,533nick#6,531lame#6,523just#6,522

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list