provo

\pʁɔ.vo\

/\pʁɔ.vo\/ noun

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

The verdict

“provo” is uncommon French (frequency #80,544 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#80,544
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Aux Pays-Bas, jeune contestataire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-provo · provo · French

provo · rank #80,544 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #80,544
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH prophétisé

Nearest frequency peer: prophétisé (-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 « provo »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for provo
PropertyValue
Headwordprovo
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pʁɔ.vo\
Letters5
Frequency rank#80,544
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « provo » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).provotombe 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: « prophétisé » (#80,543), « provocatrices » (#80,545), « prolifère » (#80,542). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « provo » est au #80,544. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

provo is uncommon French at frequency #80,544 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pʁɔ.vo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Aux Pays-Bas, jeune contestataire.".

Zero misspellings are on record for provo in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 provo, spelled P-R-O-V-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    Aux Pays-Bas, jeune contestataire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Quelques uns songent aux provos, déjà oubliés, mais symptômes d’une violence toujours latente sous la placidité du nord, aux hippies sur lesquels on marchait littéralement dans les années soixante, les enjambant de son mieux comme on l’eût fait de cadavres, maintenant refoulés sur Copenhague, sur Vancouver, sur Goa, où je les ai retrouvés hier encore, un…
  2. En juillet 1965, lors des manifestations contre le mariage controversé de la future reine des Pays-Bas, une poignée d'activistes se fait remarquer par ses actions radicales et son imagination. Ce documentaire d'Anaïs Kien retrace l'histoire d'un petit groupe devenu un vaste mouvement : les provos.

Synonyms

provoc

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 "provo"?
"provo" is spelled P-R-O-V-O. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁɔ.vo\.
What does "provo" mean?
As a noun, "provo" means: Aux Pays-Bas, jeune contestataire.
How do you pronounce "provo"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "provo" is \pʁɔ.vo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "provo" come from?
"provo" 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 "provo", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Pucci#80,553prats#80,532Poher#80,523Pippo#80,507

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list