ruisseau

\ʁɥi.so\

/\ʁɥi.so\/ noun

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

The verdict

“ruisseau” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #10,781. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#10,781
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cours d’eau d’une largeur trop peu considérable pour recevoir le nom de rivière.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ruisseau · ruisseau · French

ruisseau · rank #10,781 · 8 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #10,781
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH river

Nearest frequency peer: river (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « ruisseau »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « ruisseau » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ruisseau vs ruisseaux
89% similar
ruisseau vs rousseau
75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ruisseau
PropertyValue
Headwordruisseau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʁɥi.so\
Letters8
Frequency rank#10,781
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « ruisseau »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).ruisseause place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « river » (#10,780), « rime » (#10,779), « saumon » (#10,783). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « ruisseau » est au #10,781. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around ruisseau (IPA \ʁɥi.so\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #10,781 among 5,742 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for ruisseau, with forms such as "riusseau", "rruisseau", and "ruiseau". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "ruisseaux", "rousseau", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is ruisseau, spelled R-U-I-S-S-E-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Cours d’eau d’une largeur trop peu considérable pour recevoir le nom de rivière.
  2. 2
    Cours d’eau qui coule au milieu ou sur les deux côtés de la chaussée ; conduit, à ciel ouvert destiné à recevoir cette eau.
  3. 3
    Situation dégradante.
  4. 4
    Toutes les choses liquides qui coulent en abondance.
  5. 5
    Chose qui semble couler ou qui par son apparence rappelle un cours d’eau.
  6. 6
    Fossé séparant des champs, surtout dans les polders.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Nous reçûmes l'ordre de côtoyer en le remontant le ruisseau de la Tourbe, qui arrose la plus triste vallée du monde, entre des collines basses, sans arbres et sans buissons.
  2. L’autre jour, en me promenant le long du ruisseau qui coule à l’Est du camp, je l’ai trouvé littéralement bloqué de charognes en putréfaction; […]

This word in other languages

brook(English)arroyo(Español)Bach(Deutsch)riacho(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • riusseau
  • rruisseau
  • ruiseau
  • ruisesau
  • ruissaeu
  • ruisseua
  • rusiseau
  • urisseau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ruisseau - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

riusseau2rruisseau1ruiseau1ruisesau2ruissaeu2ruisseua2rusiseau2urisseau2
Edit distance from "ruisseau"

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 "ruisseau"?
"ruisseau" is spelled R-U-I-S-S-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁɥi.so\.
What does "ruisseau" mean?
As a noun, "ruisseau" means: Cours d’eau d’une largeur trop peu considérable pour recevoir le nom de rivière.
What words are commonly confused with "ruisseau"?
"ruisseau" is commonly confused with "ruisseaux", "rousseau". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ruisseau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ruisseau" is \ʁɥi.so\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ruisseau" come from?
"ruisseau" 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 "ruisseau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

remédier#10,776sterling#10,790suicider#10,791supposée#10,792

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

saumon8 variantssieste8 variantspalace8 variantsVénus8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list