poteau

/\pɔ.to\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#7,218

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

12

similar word pairs

poteau is aFrenchnoun. It means: Pièce de bois de charpente, posée debout. Pronounced \pɔ.to\. It ranks #7,218 in French word frequency. Often confused with potes and préau.

Key facts for poteau
PropertyValue
Headwordpoteau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔ.to\
Letters6
Frequency rank#7,218
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for poteau is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pɔ.to\. Corpus data places it at rank #7,218 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for poteau, with forms such as "opteau", "poetau", and "potaeu". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "potes", "préau", "puceau", 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 poteau, spelled P-O-T-E-A-U, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pièce de bois de charpente, posée debout.
  2. 2
    Grosse et longue pièce de bois posée droit en terre et servant à divers usages.
  3. 3
    Haute pièce de bois ou de fer, généralement surmontée d’un disque, qui marque le terme d’une course.
  4. 4
    Une des deux pièces verticales du cadre d'un filet, notamment au hockey ou au football/soccer.
  5. 5
    Coup au but frappant un des poteaux du filet au lieu d’entrer dans le but.
  6. 6
    Les poteaux : Le but, dans certains sports comme le hockey ou le football/soccer.
  7. 7
    Compagnon d'affaire ou de loisir ; pote.
  8. 8
    Ellipse de poteau d'exécution.
  9. 9
    Personne de confiance qui informe les travailleurs de rue sur ce qui se passe dans la rue.
  10. 10
    Candidat poteau : Personne mise en candidature dans une circonscription où on sait qu’elle n’a pratiquement aucune chance d’être élue, uniquement pour veiller à ce que le parti ait un candidat dans cette circonscription.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: opteau,poetau,potaeu,poteua,potteau,ppoteau,ptoeau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for poteau

Misspelling Variants of "poteau"

opteau6poetau6potaeu6poteua6potteau7ppoteau7ptoeau6
Misspelling Variants of "poteau"

Frequency rank: #7,218 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "poteau"?
"poteau" is spelled P-O-T-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔ.to\.
What does "poteau" mean?
As a noun, "poteau" means: Pièce de bois de charpente, posée debout.
What words are commonly confused with "poteau"?
"poteau" is commonly confused with "potes", "préau", "puceau". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "poteau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "poteau" is \pɔ.to\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "poteau" come from?
"poteau" 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.