paw

\pɔː\

/\pɔː\/ noun

The verdict

“paw” is uncommon French (frequency #61,017 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,017
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Patte, pied.

Corpus desk

Index FR-paw · paw · French

paw · rank #61,017 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,017
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pats

Nearest frequency peer: pats (-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 « paw »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for paw
PropertyValue
Headwordpaw
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔː\
Letters3
Frequency rank#61,017
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « paw » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).pawtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « pats » (#61,016), « paysagers » (#61,018), « parviendrez » (#61,015). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « paw » est au #61,017. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

paw is uncommon French at frequency #61,017 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔː\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for paw, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is paw, spelled P-A-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    Patte, pied.
  2. 2
    Paluche.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. A paw is the soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot.
  2. It was seven o’clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day’s rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips.

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 "paw"?
"paw" is spelled P-A-W. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔː\.
What does "paw" mean?
As a noun, "paw" means: Patte, pied.
How do you pronounce "paw"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "paw" is \pɔː\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "paw" come from?
"paw" 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 "paw", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list