poubelle

\pu.bɛl\

/\pu.bɛl\/ noun

The verdict

“poubelle” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,007. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#6,007
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Récipient destiné à recevoir des détritus.

Corpus desk

Index FR-poubelle · poubelle · French

poubelle · rank #6,007 · 9 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,007
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pompe

Nearest frequency peer: pompe (-1 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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « poubelle »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « poubelle » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

poubelle vs pucelle
75% similar
poubelle vs prunelle
75% similar
poubelle vs poubelles
89% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for poubelle
PropertyValue
Headwordpoubelle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pu.bɛl\
Letters8
Frequency rank#6,007
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « poubelle »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.poubellese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « pompe » (#6,006), « pourrai » (#6,008), « participent » (#6,005). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « poubelle » est au #6,007. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around poubelle (IPA \pu.bɛl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,007 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for poubelle, with forms such as "opubelle", "pobuelle", and "poubbelle". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "pucelle", "prunelle", "poubelles", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is poubelle, spelled P-O-U-B-E-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Récipient destiné à recevoir des détritus.
  2. 2
    Ensemble des ordures.
  3. 3
    Mécanisme logiciel qui permet de mettre à l’écart des fichiers qu’on envisage de supprimer → voir corbeille.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how poubelle appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Il lui fallait pêcher sa croûte, n’importe comment, dans les poubelles, à plat ventre, dans la fange, dans la m... Tout d’ailleurs n’était que m... La société, la belle société, un vaste pot de m..., un gulf-stream de m...
  2. Les zoniers sont nombreux encore qui habitent des cabanes plus ou moins construites avec de vieilles boites à sardines. L'industrie des chiffons et l'exploration matutinale des poubelles ne leur permettent pas de villas plus cossues.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • opubelle
  • pobuelle
  • poubbelle
  • poubele
  • poubelel
  • poublele
  • poueblle
  • ppoubelle
  • puobelle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of poubelle - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

opubelle2pobuelle2poubbelle1poubele1poubelel2poublele2poueblle2ppoubelle1
Edit distance from "poubelle"

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

How do you spell "poubelle"?
"poubelle" is spelled P-O-U-B-E-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pu.bɛl\.
What does "poubelle" mean?
As a noun, "poubelle" means: Récipient destiné à recevoir des détritus.
What words are commonly confused with "poubelle"?
"poubelle" is commonly confused with "pucelle", "prunelle", "poubelles". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "poubelle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "poubelle" is \pu.bɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "poubelle" come from?
"poubelle" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "poubelle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list