paillasse

\pa.jas\

/\pa.jas\/ noun

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

The verdict

“paillasse” is uncommon French (frequency #53,531 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,531
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Grande enveloppe de toile, ordinairement remplie de paille, dont on garnissait un lit.

Corpus desk

Index FR-paillasse · paillasse · French

paillasse · rank #53,531 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,531
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH paieraient

Nearest frequency peer: paieraient (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « paillasse »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « paillasse » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for paillasse
PropertyValue
Headwordpaillasse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.jas\
Letters9
Frequency rank#53,531
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « paillasse » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).paillassetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « paieraient » (#53,530), « Palermo » (#53,532), « outrepasser » (#53,529). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « paillasse » est au #53,531. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

paillasse is uncommon French at frequency #53,531 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pa.jas\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for paillasse, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is paillasse, spelled P-A-I-L-L-A-S-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Grande enveloppe de toile, ordinairement remplie de paille, dont on garnissait un lit.
  2. 2
    Ventre.
  3. 3
    Corbeille en paille, utilisée par les boulangers (voir paneton).
  4. 4
    Tapis de joncs servant à faire sécher le fromage. → voir paillisse
  5. 5
    Plan de travail dans un laboratoire de biologie, de chimie, etc., dans un atelier ou une cuisine.
  6. 6
    Partie de l’évier qui sert à égoutter la vaisselle.
  7. 7
    Dalle inclinée qui supporte les marches et les contremarches d'un escalier.
  8. 8
    Partie maçonnée d’une forge.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’est qu’il faut vous dire que les lits suisses sont composés purement et simplement d’une paillasse, et d’un sommier sur lequel on étend, en le décorant du titre de drap, une espèce de nappe, […].
  2. Quand son hôte eut fini, Misère l’enveloppa dans sa vieille couverture de futaine, et le força de se coucher sur sa paillasse […]

Synonyms

bassaque

This word in other languages

bench(English)jergón(Español)Strohsack(Deutsch)enxerga(Português)

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 "paillasse"?
"paillasse" is spelled P-A-I-L-L-A-S-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.jas\.
What does "paillasse" mean?
As a noun, "paillasse" means: Grande enveloppe de toile, ordinairement remplie de paille, dont on garnissait un lit.
How do you pronounce "paillasse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "paillasse" is \pa.jas\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "paillasse" come from?
"paillasse" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "paillasse", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Palpatine#53,533Ouellette#53,528pardonnée#53,537omelettes#53,522

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list