pieds de mouche

noun

The verdict

“pieds de mouche” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Écriture dont les lettres sont très menues et très mal formées.

Key facts for pieds de mouche
PropertyValue
Headwordpieds de mouche
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “pieds de mouche” sits in French frequency

pieds de mouche falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for pieds de mouche is 15 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Écriture dont les lettres sont très menues et très mal formées.".

No misspelling variants are generated for pieds de mouche in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is pieds de mouche, spelled P-I-E-D-S- -D-E- -M-O-U-C-H-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Écriture dont les lettres sont très menues et très mal formées.

Synonyms

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 "pieds de mouche"?
"pieds de mouche" is spelled P-I-E-D-S- -D-E- -M-O-U-C-H-E.
What does "pieds de mouche" mean?
As a noun, "pieds de mouche" means: Écriture dont les lettres sont très menues et très mal formées.
What language does "pieds de mouche" come from?
"pieds de mouche" 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.

Using “pieds de mouche”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is P-I-E-D-S- -D-E- -M-O-U-C-H-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list