petit-lait

\pə.ti.lɛ\

/\pə.ti.lɛ\/ noun

The verdict

“petit-lait” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Liquide protéiné contenant peu de matières grasses, restant après égouttage d’un lait coagulé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-petit-lait · petit-lait · French

petit-lait · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 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.

Key facts for petit-lait
PropertyValue
Headwordpetit-lait
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pə.ti.lɛ\
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « petit-lait » en français

petit-laitreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

petit-lait is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pə.ti.lɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for petit-lait, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is petit-lait, spelled P-E-T-I-T---L-A-I-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Liquide protéiné contenant peu de matières grasses, restant après égouttage d’un lait coagulé.
  2. 2
    Peut également désigner, lorsque la distinction fine n’est pas requise, le babeurre.
  3. 3
    Grande satisfaction.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. […], quand on voit que le caillé tombe au fond, on retire l'eau et le petit-lait ; […].
  2. Ils disent : "Madame la comtesse est grosse, il est probable que sa délivrance déterminera une crise favorable. Qu'on la tienne en bon air, à la campagne, du petit-lait, de la codéine…"

Synonyms

lactosérumlait barattélait battulait de beurre

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "petit-lait"?
"petit-lait" is spelled P-E-T-I-T---L-A-I-T. The IPA pronunciation is \pə.ti.lɛ\.
What does "petit-lait" mean?
As a noun, "petit-lait" means: Liquide protéiné contenant peu de matières grasses, restant après égouttage d’un lait coagulé.
How do you pronounce "petit-lait"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "petit-lait" is \pə.ti.lɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "petit-lait" come from?
"petit-lait" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list