pouce

\pus\

/\pus\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“pouce” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,388. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,388
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Le plus gros et court des doigts de la main, opposable aux autres.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pouce · pouce · French

pouce · rank #5,388 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,388
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH primaires

Nearest frequency peer: primaires (+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 « pouce »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « pouce » 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).

pouce vs pue
60% similar
pouce vs pour
60% similar
pouce vs pure
60% similar

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

Key facts for pouce
PropertyValue
Headwordpouce
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pus\
Letters5
Frequency rank#5,388
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pouce »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « primaires » (#5,389), « priori » (#5,390), « poster » (#5,385). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pouce » est au #5,388. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around pouce (IPA \pus\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,388 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for pouce, with forms such as "opuce", "pocue", and "poucce". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pue", "pour", "pure", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is pouce, spelled P-O-U-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Le plus gros et court des doigts de la main, opposable aux autres.
  2. 2
    Partie d’un vêtement qui couvre exactement ce doigt.
  3. 3
    Doigt que quelques mammifères ont aux mains et même aux pieds, et qui, comme le pouce chez l’être humain, est opposable aux autres doigts.
  4. 4
    Ancienne unité de mesure de longueur (symbole : p). La douzième partie d’un pied.
  5. 5
    Unité de mesure de longueur du système impérial britannique valant 2,54 centimètres ou un douzième d’un pied britannique. Le symbole : ″, in en anglais, po en français. → voir inch
  6. 6
    (un 17 pouces, etc.) Écran dont la diagonale a cette longueur.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Quant à vous, mes vieux, si vous êtes bas percés, plongez vos pattes là-dedans et prenez-en tant que vos cinq doigts en pourront tenir, et même mettez-y le pouce à la mode d’Allemagne. »
  2. Pendant quelques secondes il roula son cigare entre le pouce et l’index, à hauteur de l’œil droit, suivit du regard le mince filet de fumée qui montait en spirale bleuâtre […]

Synonyms

doigt Ipremier doigt

This word in other languages

thumb(English)pulgar(Español)Daumen(Deutsch)polegar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • opuce
  • pocue
  • poucce
  • pouec
  • ppouce
  • puoce

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pouce - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

opuce2pocue2poucce1pouec2ppouce1puoce2
Edit distance from "pouce"

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 "pouce"?
"pouce" is spelled P-O-U-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pus\.
What does "pouce" mean?
As a noun, "pouce" means: Le plus gros et court des doigts de la main, opposable aux autres.
What words are commonly confused with "pouce"?
"pouce" is commonly confused with "pue", "pour", "pure". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pouce"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pouce" is \pus\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pouce" come from?
"pouce" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "pouce", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

plume#5,381perds#5,378parcs#5,375liège#5,360

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

abbaye6 variantskong6 variantsGang6 variantsBrian6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list