perce-oreille
\pɛʁ.sɔ.ʁɛj\
The verdict
“perce-oreille” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom vernaculaire de Forficula auricularia, insecte dont l’abdomen se termine par deux crochets ou cerques en forme de tenaille, mais bien incapables de percer une oreille.
Corpus desk
Index FR-perce-oreille · perce-oreille · French
perce-oreille · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | perce-oreille |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pɛʁ.sɔ.ʁɛj\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « perce-oreille » en français
Rare enough to double-check
perce-oreille is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɛʁ.sɔ.ʁɛj\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Nom vernaculaire de Forficula auricularia, insecte dont l’abdomen se termine par deux crochets ou cerques en forme de tenaille, mais bien incapables de percer une oreille.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for perce-oreille, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is perce-oreille, spelled P-E-R-C-E---O-R-E-I-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Nom vernaculaire de Forficula auricularia, insecte dont l’abdomen se termine par deux crochets ou cerques en forme de tenaille, mais bien incapables de percer une oreille.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how perce-oreille appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A regarder un perce-oreille, on n’imagine pas qu’il puisse voler !
Il y a des perce-oreilles dans les chantiers des Ursulines, il y a des mille-pieds au Panthéon, il y a des têtards dans les fossés du Champ de Mars.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.