pigeon

/\pi.ʒɔ̃\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#11,634

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

16

similar word pairs

pigeon is aFrenchnoun. It means: Oiseau de la famille des columbidés vivant en plaine et dans les villes, et se nourrissant principalement de graines. Pronounced \pi.ʒɔ̃\. Often confused with pion and piges.

Key facts for pigeon
PropertyValue
Headwordpigeon
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pi.ʒɔ̃\
Letters6
Frequency rank#11,634
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs16
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of pigeon in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for pigeon is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pi.ʒɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #11,634 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for pigeon, with forms such as "ipgeon", "pgieon", and "piegon". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "pion", "piges", "pilon", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is pigeon, spelled P-I-G-E-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Oiseau de la famille des columbidés vivant en plaine et dans les villes, et se nourrissant principalement de graines.
  2. 2
    Pigeon voyageur.
  3. 3
    Nom donné à trois genres d'oiseaux bien définis au sein de l'ordre des columbiformes, appellation qui a fait l'objet d'une normalisation par des ornithologues francophones, et dont la liste des espèces pertinentes est donnée plus bas (cf. "hyponymes"); de façon générale, on nomme pigeon tout oiseau du genre Columba par voie de préséance puisqu'il s'agit de celui dont toutes les races d'élevage descendent (et plus précisément, le pigeon biset, Columba livia), ainsi que les deux genres très voisins Patagioenas (les 'Columba" du Nouveau Monde) et Nesoenas (les "Columba" des îles Mascareignes).→ voir columbidés
  4. 4
    Personne à qui l’on joue un tour, que l’on escroque ou dupe.
  5. 5
    Cible de ball-trap.
  6. 6
    Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries. Il est généralement représenté de profil, ailes repliées. Il peut adopter différentes couleurs mais on parlera plutôt de colombe quand il est d’argent ou de tourterelle quand il est de sable mais il ne s’agit pas d'une règle bien établie. Il y a donc un risque de confusion entre ces différents oiseaux.
  7. 7
    Torpille aérienne à ailettes française.
  8. 8
    Clou à quatre pointes.
  9. 9
    Poignée de plâtre pressée dans la main avec une truelle, elle à la taille et la couleur de l’oiseau éponyme. → voir pigeonnage  ^([1])

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ipgeon,pgieon,piegon,pigeno,pigeonn,piggeon,pigoen,ppigeon

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for pigeon

Misspelling Variants of "pigeon"

ipgeon6pgieon6piegon6pigeno6pigeonn7piggeon7pigoen6ppigeon7
Misspelling Variants of "pigeon"

Frequency rank: #11,634 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pigeon"?
"pigeon" is spelled P-I-G-E-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \pi.ʒɔ̃\.
What does "pigeon" mean?
As a noun, "pigeon" means: Oiseau de la famille des columbidés vivant en plaine et dans les villes, et se nourrissant principalement de graines.
What words are commonly confused with "pigeon"?
"pigeon" is commonly confused with "pion", "piges", "pilon". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pigeon"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pigeon" is \pi.ʒɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pigeon" come from?
"pigeon" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.