piquer au vif
\pi.ke o vif\
The verdict
“piquer au vif” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Piquer jusqu’au sang.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | piquer au vif |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \pi.ke o vif\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “piquer au vif” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for piquer au vif is 13 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pi.ke o vif\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for piquer au vif, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is piquer au vif, spelled P-I-Q-U-E-R- -A-U- -V-I-F.
Definition
- 1Piquer jusqu’au sang.
- 2Exciter ; irriter.
- 3Faire une offense très sensible, en particulier dans un domaine qui tient particulièrement à cœur.
Synonyms
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
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Using “piquer au vif”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-I-Q-U-E-R- -A-U- -V-I-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pi.ke o vif\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.