poil
French, noun/pwal/
poil is spelled P-O-I-L (4 letters) and appears 17 times per million words in written French, the 4,416th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Poil is a French masculine noun meaning “hair (on the body)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Filet délié qui croît sur la peau de la plupart des mammifères et à certains endroits du corps humain”.
What does poil mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinehair (on the body)
- 2
masculinebristle (on a brush)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Filet délié qui croît sur la peau de la plupart des mammifères et à certains endroits du corps humain. 2. Tous les poils qui sont sur le corps d’un animal. 3. La chevelure ; mais, dans cette acception, on ne l’emploie guère qu’en parlant des cheveux dont la couleur passe pour désagréable, ou est altérée par l’âge. 4. Poil hérissé se dit des cheveux, lorsqu’ils se dressent sur la tête.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of poil
- poils plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce poil?
- /pwal/
- \pwal\
- [pwal]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to poil
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is poil in French?
poil appears 17 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).