pouffer

\pu.fe\

/\pu.fe\/ verb

The verdict

“pouffer” is uncommon French (frequency #74,290 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#74,290
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - petit rire étouffé ou mal contenu.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pouffer · pouffer · French

pouffer · rank #74,290 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #74,290
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH polythéistes

Nearest frequency peer: polythéistes (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « pouffer »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « pouffer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pouffer
PropertyValue
Headwordpouffer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\pu.fe\
Letters7
Frequency rank#74,290
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pouffer » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.pouffertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « polythéistes » (#74,289), « poétiquement » (#74,291), « polytechniciens » (#74,288). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pouffer » est au #74,290. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pouffer is uncommon French at frequency #74,290 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \pu.fe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pouffer, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is pouffer, spelled P-O-U-F-F-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    petit rire étouffé ou mal contenu.
  2. 2
    Souffler.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Depuis l’accident qui était arrivé à sa mâchoire, elle avait renoncé à prendre la peine de pouffer effectivement et se livrait à la place à une mimique conventionnelle qui signifiait, sans fatigue ni risques pour elle, qu’elle riait aux larmes.
  2. La télépathie leur avait révélé sur Saturne des choses stupéfiantes. Sur Terre, ils ne découvraient que des faits incompréhensibles ou les faisant pouffer de rire.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

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 "pouffer"?
"pouffer" is spelled P-O-U-F-F-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \pu.fe\.
What does "pouffer" mean?
As a verb, "pouffer" means: petit rire étouffé ou mal contenu.
How do you pronounce "pouffer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pouffer" is \pu.fe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pouffer" come from?
"pouffer" 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 "pouffer", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list