peau

\po\

/\po\/ noun

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

The verdict

“peau” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,301) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,301
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Enveloppe d’un corps humain ou animal.

Corpus desk

Index FR-peau · peau · French

peau · rank #1,301 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,301
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH parlement

Nearest frequency peer: parlement (-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 « peau »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « peau » 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).

peau vs pu
50% similar
peau vs peu
75% similar
peau vs pen
50% similar

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

Key facts for peau
PropertyValue
Headwordpeau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\po\
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,301
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « peau »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « parlement » (#1,300), « surface » (#1,302), « tels » (#1,303). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « peau » est au #1,301. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for peau is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "peu", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \po\. Frequency #1,301 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 10 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for peau, with forms such as "epau", "paeu", and "peua". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "peu", "pen", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is peau, spelled P-E-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Enveloppe d’un corps humain ou animal.
  2. 2
    La personne elle-même.
  3. 3
    Dépouille de l’animal ; cuir.
  4. 4
    Parties tendineuses et coriaces qui se trouvent dans la viande.
  5. 5
    Enveloppe des fruits, amandes, oignons, etc.
  6. 6
    Croûte plus ou moins fine qui se forme sur les substances liquides ou onctueuses, par l’épaississement qui résulte de l’évaporation.
  7. 7
    Personne méprisable.
  8. 8
    Partie externe d'une pièce composée d'un assemblage de matériaux.
  9. 9
    Femme de mauvaise vie, prostituée.
  10. 10
    Peau de phoque.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Elles n’ont point la peau basanée, comme on le croit en Europe ; la plupart sont, au contraire, très blanches ; les autres, selon leurs diverses origines, sont brunes, mais d’une peau unie et veloutée, d’une teinte chaude et pleine de vie.
  2. Qu’est-ce que l’expression se coucher, comparée à se piausser, revêtir une autre peau !

Synonyms

exodermeectoblasteectoderme

This word in other languages

skin(English)piel(Español)Haut(Deutsch)pele(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • epau
  • paeu
  • peua
  • ppeau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of peau - 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.

epau2paeu2peua2ppeau1
Edit distance from "peau"

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 "peau"?
"peau" is spelled P-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \po\.
What does "peau" mean?
As a noun, "peau" means: Enveloppe d’un corps humain ou animal.
What words are commonly confused with "peau"?
"peau" is commonly confused with "pu", "peu", "pen". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "peau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "peau" is \po\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "peau" come from?
"peau" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "peau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

tels#1,303lois#1,296venu#1,306goût#1,293

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list