quatrième de couverture

/\ka.tʁi.jɛm də ku.vɛʁ.tyʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“quatrième de couverture” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
23
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Dernière page extérieure d’un livre, où apparaissent généralement une introduction à (ou un extrait du contenu de) l’ouvrage ainsi qu’une très brève présentation de son auteur.

Key facts for quatrième de couverture
PropertyValue
Headwordquatrième de couverture
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ka.tʁi.jɛm də ku.vɛʁ.tyʁ\
Letters23
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “quatrième de couverture” sits in French frequency

quatrième de couverture falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for quatrième de couverture is 23 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ka.tʁi.jɛm də ku.vɛʁ.tyʁ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Dernière page extérieure d’un livre, où apparaissent généralement une introduction à (ou un extrait du contenu de) l’ouvrage ainsi qu’une très brève présentation de son auteur.".

No misspelling variants are generated for quatrième de couverture in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is quatrième de couverture, spelled Q-U-A-T-R-I-È-M-E- -D-E- -C-O-U-V-E-R-T-U-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dernière page extérieure d’un livre, où apparaissent généralement une introduction à (ou un extrait du contenu de) l’ouvrage ainsi qu’une très brève présentation de son auteur.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “quatrième de couverture, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/quatrieme-de-couverture

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "quatrième de couverture"?
"quatrième de couverture" is spelled Q-U-A-T-R-I-È-M-E- -D-E- -C-O-U-V-E-R-T-U-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.tʁi.jɛm də ku.vɛʁ.tyʁ\.
What does "quatrième de couverture" mean?
As a noun, "quatrième de couverture" means: Dernière page extérieure d’un livre, où apparaissent généralement une introduction à (ou un extrait du contenu de) l’ouvrage ainsi qu’une très brève présentation de son auteur.
How do you pronounce "quatrième de couverture"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "quatrième de couverture" is \ka.tʁi.jɛm də ku.vɛʁ.tyʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "quatrième de couverture" come from?
"quatrième de couverture" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Using “quatrième de couverture”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is Q-U-A-T-R-I-È-M-E- -D-E- -C-O-U-V-E-R-T-U-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ka.tʁi.jɛm də ku.vɛʁ.tyʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter Q in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list