poum
\pum\
The verdict
“poum” is uncommon French (frequency #57,516 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as an onomatopoeia. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,516
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Utilisé surtout par les enfants pour imiter un bruit d’explosion.
Corpus desk
Index FR-poum · poum · French
poum · rank #57,516 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #57,516
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH pouliche
Nearest frequency peer: pouliche (-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 « poum »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- politisés
politisés
42,489 corpus weight
- Polska
Polska
42,488 corpus weight
- pouliche
pouliche
42,486 corpus weight
- poum
poum
42,485 corpus weight
- pressantes
pressantes
42,483 corpus weight
- proactif
proactif
42,482 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « poum » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | poum |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Onomatopoeia |
| IPA | \pum\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #57,516 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « poum » en français
Rare enough to double-check
poum is uncommon French at frequency #57,516 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anonomatopoeia, transcribed \pum\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for poum in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is poum, spelled P-O-U-M.
Definition
- 1Utilisé surtout par les enfants pour imiter un bruit d’explosion.
- 2Utilisé pour imiter le bruit d’un choc fort et sourd, comme celui d’un tambour.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how poum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il avait même inventé un jeu : « Pim, pam, poum », mais maman ne sait plus du tout comment c’était, sauf que, quand on disait « Poum », on avait perdu.
Il a pris un air sinistre et il a fait « poum ! » comme avec un revolver.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "poum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).