pitou
\pi.tu\
The verdict
“pitou” is uncommon French (frequency #58,836 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,836
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Chien.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pitou · pitou · French
pitou · rank #58,836 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #58,836
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH pippa
Nearest frequency peer: pippa (-2 rank slots)
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.
Rangs de longue queue près de « pitou »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- pinçon
pinçon
41,169 corpus weight
- pioches
pioches
41,168 corpus weight
- pippa
pippa
41,167 corpus weight
- pitou
pitou
41,165 corpus weight
- plaignais
plaignais
41,163 corpus weight
- poinçons
poinçons
41,162 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « pitou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pitou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pi.tu\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #58,836 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « pitou » en français
Rare enough to double-check
pitou is uncommon French at frequency #58,836 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pi.tu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
pitou has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is pitou, spelled P-I-T-O-U.
Definition
- 1Chien.
- 2Nom affectueux utilisé par certaines femmes pour désigner leur amoureux ou leur mari.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pitou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Pour continuer dans la légende, j’ai rencontré sur une plage, à Ithaque, un pitou de bonne famille qui répondait au nom d’Argos… Comme ce bon vieux chien d’Ulysse qui reconnut immédiatement son maître après de si longues années d’absence.
Et économisez maintenant des dollars supplémentaires. Ils serviront à payer le vétérinaire et l’éducateur que vous devrez engager quand pitou fera de l’anxiété dans le tapis ou développera une réactivité telle que toute promenade deviendra impossible.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pitou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).