pavois

\pa.vwa\

/\pa.vwa\/ noun

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

The verdict

“pavois” is uncommon French (frequency #75,989 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#75,989
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de grand bouclier en usage à l’époque mérovingienne. À la différence de la targe, il est recourbé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pavois · pavois · French

pavois · rank #75,989 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #75,989
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pato

Nearest frequency peer: pato (-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 « pavois »

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 « pavois » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pavois
PropertyValue
Headwordpavois
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.vwa\
Letters6
Frequency rank#75,989
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pavois » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.pavoistombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « pato » (#75,988), « pecho » (#75,990), « pati » (#75,987). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pavois » est au #75,989. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pavois is uncommon French at frequency #75,989 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pa.vwa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for pavois in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is pavois, spelled P-A-V-O-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sorte de grand bouclier en usage à l’époque mérovingienne. À la différence de la targe, il est recourbé.
  2. 2
    Ensemble des pavillons répartis sur de légers cordages hissés aux mâts et vergues d’un navire. Ils servent habituellement aux signaux, et occasionnellement à célébrer un événement heureux.
  3. 3
    Tenue exceptionnelle.
  4. 4
    Partie supérieure de la muraille d’un navire qui dépasse du pont. Originellement, il était formé de boucliers fixés sur la partie supérieure du navire pour se protéger lors du combat.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il était impossible d’empêcher des assaillants nombreux et hardis, protégés par des pavois et même par des chats (sortes de chariots recouverts de madriers et de peaux) de saper le pied des tours.
  2. Lorsqu’on élisait un roi, on le hissait sur le pavois.

This word in other languages

bulwark(English)

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 "pavois"?
"pavois" is spelled P-A-V-O-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.vwa\.
What does "pavois" mean?
As a noun, "pavois" means: Sorte de grand bouclier en usage à l’époque mérovingienne. À la différence de la targe, il est recourbé.
How do you pronounce "pavois"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pavois" is \pa.vwa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pavois" come from?
"pavois" 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 "pavois", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Pesaro#75,999pitres#76,009nouant#75,950prolos#76,034

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list