pied-à-terre
\pje.t‿a.tɛʁ\
The verdict
“pied-à-terre” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Logement dans un endroit où l’on ne demeure pas, où l’on ne vient qu’en passant.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pied-a-terre · pied-à-terre · French
pied-à-terre · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | pied-à-terre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pje.t‿a.tɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « pied-à-terre » en français
Rare enough to double-check
pied-à-terre is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pje.t‿a.tɛʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Logement dans un endroit où l’on ne demeure pas, où l’on ne vient qu’en passant.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for pied-à-terre, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is pied-à-terre, spelled P-I-E-D---À---T-E-R-R-E.
Definition
- 1Logement dans un endroit où l’on ne demeure pas, où l’on ne vient qu’en passant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pied-à-terre appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il y avait bien au domaine de Montbrat, comme dans la plupart des métairies éloignées de la résidence du propriétaire, un pied-à-terre appelé la chambre du maître.
Cette Babel du vice aristocratique et raffiné avait toutes les apparences du pied-à-terre de la vertu. Louis XIV lui-même, à l'époque de ses premières passions, était allé plusieurs fois chez La Vienne;[…].
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.