pouponnière

\pu.pɔ.njɛʁ\

/\pu.pɔ.njɛʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“pouponnière” is uncommon French (frequency #67,786 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,786
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Établissement où l’on soigne, où l’on garde les petits enfants.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pouponniere · pouponnière · French

pouponnière · rank #67,786 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,786
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH Portia

Nearest frequency peer: Portia (-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 « pouponnière »

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 « pouponnière » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pouponnière
PropertyValue
Headwordpouponnière
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pu.pɔ.njɛʁ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#67,786
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pouponnière » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).pouponnièretombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Portia » (#67,785), « pourcents » (#67,787), « pondérés » (#67,783). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pouponnière » est au #67,786. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pouponnière is uncommon French at frequency #67,786 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pu.pɔ.njɛʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

pouponnière has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is pouponnière, spelled P-O-U-P-O-N-N-I-È-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Établissement où l’on soigne, où l’on garde les petits enfants.
  2. 2
    Endroit où l'on bénéficie de conditions de vie privilégiées.
  3. 3
    Espace dédié à la culture des semis ou des plantules.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais comment, cependant, ne pas consacrer au moins un mot à cette admirable pouponnière, à cette garderie, à ces parcs à bébés où les jeunes mères déposent leurs petits, qu’elles viennent, à intervalles réguliers, allaiter avec des précautions de propreté, une incessante éducation d’hygiène dont je m’émerveille ?
  2. On la réchauffa à l’aide de serviettes souillées du sang de sa mère, puis on la sécha dans un torchon blanc et rugueux dans lequel on l’enveloppa et l’on courut lui administrer les premiers soins dans la pouponnière.

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 "pouponnière"?
"pouponnière" is spelled P-O-U-P-O-N-N-I-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pu.pɔ.njɛʁ\.
What does "pouponnière" mean?
As a noun, "pouponnière" means: Établissement où l’on soigne, où l’on garde les petits enfants.
How do you pronounce "pouponnière"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pouponnière" is \pu.pɔ.njɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pouponnière" come from?
"pouponnière" 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 "pouponnière", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list