pech

\ˈpeʃː\

/\ˈpeʃː\/ noun

The verdict

“pech” is uncommon French (frequency #56,813 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#56,813
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Piège (machine dissimulée dont on se sert pour prendre des animaux, comme les loups, les renards, etc).

Corpus desk

Index FR-pech · pech · French

pech · rank #56,813 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #56,813
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH Paulhan

Nearest frequency peer: Paulhan (-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 « pech »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pech
PropertyValue
Headwordpech
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ˈpeʃː\
Letters4
Frequency rank#56,813
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pech » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.pechtombe 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: « Paulhan » (#56,812), « password » (#56,810), « parviendrait » (#56,809). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pech » est au #56,813. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pech is uncommon French at frequency #56,813 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ˈpeʃː\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Piège (machine dissimulée dont on se sert pour prendre des animaux, comme les loups, les renards, etc).".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for pech, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 pech, spelled P-E-C-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Piège (machine dissimulée dont on se sert pour prendre des animaux, comme les loups, les renards, etc).

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Nʼem eus mui stignet pechoù abaoe, koulz lavarout, nemet ur wech ma veze debret ar vioù e klud ar yer.

Synonyms

antell

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 "pech"?
"pech" is spelled P-E-C-H. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈpeʃː\.
What does "pech" mean?
As a noun, "pech" means: Piège (machine dissimulée dont on se sert pour prendre des animaux, comme les loups, les renards, etc).
How do you pronounce "pech"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pech" is \ˈpeʃː\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pech" come from?
"pech" 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 "pech", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list