papillon

/\pa.pi.jɔ̃\/ noun

Letters

8 characters

Frequency Rank

#8,131

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

papillon is aFrenchnoun. It means: Insecte qui a quatre ailes couvertes de fines écailles colorées, c’est le stade imaginal du lépidoptère. Pronounced \pa.pi.jɔ̃\. It ranks #8,131 in French word frequency. Often confused with Peillon and pavillon.

Key facts for papillon
PropertyValue
Headwordpapillon
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.pi.jɔ̃\
Letters8
Frequency rank#8,131
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of papillon in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for papillon is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pa.pi.jɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #8,131 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for papillon, with forms such as "appillon", "paipllon", and "papillno". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Peillon", "pavillon", "papillons", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is papillon, spelled P-A-P-I-L-L-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Insecte qui a quatre ailes couvertes de fines écailles colorées, c’est le stade imaginal du lépidoptère.
  2. 2
    Personne qui, se laissant tromper par des apparences brillantes, est près de tomber dans un piège.
  3. 3
    Esprit léger qui voltige d’objets en objets.
  4. 4
    Bagatelle, considération futile.
  5. 5
    Petit papier détachable à bande semi-adhésive ou simple papier collé à l’intérieur d’un livre, d’une revue, pour donner un avis au lecteur, indiquer un erratum, etc.
  6. 6
    Procès verbal de contravention que les agents de la circulation glissent sous les essuie-glaces.
  7. 7
    Volet orientable posé dans un conduit et permettant de réguler le débit d’un fluide.
  8. 8
    Écrou en forme de papillon pouvant être serré sans outil.
  9. 9
    Style de nage ventrale, où les bras et les jambes agissent symétriquement.
  10. 10
    Sorte de bec de gaz dont la flamme evoque les ailes d'un papillon.
  11. 11
    Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries.
  12. 12
    Grande douve du foie des ruminants.
  13. 13
    Nœud papillon.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: appillon,paipllon,papillno,papillonn,papiloln,papilon,paplilon,pappillon,ppaillon,ppapillon

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for papillon

Misspelling Variants of "papillon"

appillon8paipllon8papillno8papillonn9papiloln8papilon7paplilon8pappillon9
Misspelling Variants of "papillon"

Frequency rank: #8,131 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "papillon"?
"papillon" is spelled P-A-P-I-L-L-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.pi.jɔ̃\.
What does "papillon" mean?
As a noun, "papillon" means: Insecte qui a quatre ailes couvertes de fines écailles colorées, c’est le stade imaginal du lépidoptère.
What words are commonly confused with "papillon"?
"papillon" is commonly confused with "Peillon", "pavillon", "papillons". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "papillon"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "papillon" is \pa.pi.jɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "papillon" come from?
"papillon" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.