prendre la bûche

verb

The verdict

“prendre la bûche” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
16
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Choir ; tomber.

Corpus desk

Index FR-prendre-la-buche · prendre la bûche · French

prendre la bûche · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 16 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for prendre la bûche
PropertyValue
Headwordprendre la bûche
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
Letters16
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « prendre la bûche » en français

prendre la bûchereste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

prendre la bûche is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Choir ; tomber.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for prendre la bûche in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is prendre la bûche, spelled P-R-E-N-D-R-E- -L-A- -B-Û-C-H-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Choir ; tomber.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. De temps en temps, un des glisseurs perdait bien l’équilibre, culbutait et tous ceux qui suivaient prenaient la bûche derrière lui, roulant l’un sur l’autre parmi la neige fine qui vous glaçait les doigts et vous fichait l’onglée.

Synonyms

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "prendre la bûche"?
"prendre la bûche" is spelled P-R-E-N-D-R-E- -L-A- -B-Û-C-H-E.
What does "prendre la bûche" mean?
As a verb, "prendre la bûche" means: Choir ; tomber.
What language does "prendre la bûche" come from?
"prendre la bûche" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list