sifflet

\si.flɛ\

/\si.flɛ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“sifflet” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #18,321. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#18,321
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
6
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit instrument à vent, constitué d’un tube court dont l’embouchure est souvent biseautée et qui produit un son aigu.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sifflet · sifflet · French

sifflet · rank #18,321 · 9 variants · 6 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #18,321
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH shadow

Nearest frequency peer: shadow (-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 « sifflet »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « sifflet » 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).

sifflet vs simplet
71% similar
sifflet vs sifflets
88% similar
sifflet vs soufflet
75% similar

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

Key facts for sifflet
PropertyValue
Headwordsifflet
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\si.flɛ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#18,321
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « sifflet »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).siffletse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « shadow » (#18,320), « skate » (#18,322), « septentrionale » (#18,319). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sifflet » est au #18,321. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around sifflet (IPA \si.flɛ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #18,321 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 13 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for sifflet, with forms such as "isfflet", "sfiflet", and "siffelt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "simplet", "sifflets", "soufflet", and more, 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 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 sifflet, spelled S-I-F-F-L-E-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit instrument à vent, constitué d’un tube court dont l’embouchure est souvent biseautée et qui produit un son aigu.
  2. 2
    Son aigu que rend le sifflement.
  3. 3
    Improbation manifestée par des coups de sifflet ou par quelque autre marque de mépris, ou au contraire manifestation d’approbation pratiquée par le public américain.
  4. 4
    Évidement pratiqué dans la corne du sabot.
  5. 5
    Rétrécissement.
  6. 6
    Cri de certains oiseaux.
  7. 7
    Gorge, gosier.
  8. 8
    Habit noir à queue, dont la forme évoque un sifflet.
  9. 9
    Flûte de pan, pipeau.
  10. 10
    Bruit que produit le vent qui siffle.
  11. 11
    Pénis.
  12. 12
    Homme de haute taille.
  13. 13
    Avertisseur sonore d’un train (par héritage des sifflets des train à vapeur).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Sifflet de bois, d’argent, etc.
  2. Porter un sifflet dans sa poche.

Synonyms

sifflementchant

This word in other languages

whistle(English)Pfeife(Deutsch)apito(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • isfflet
  • sfiflet
  • siffelt
  • sifflett
  • siffllet
  • sifflte
  • siflet
  • siflfet
  • ssifflet

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sifflet - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

isfflet2sfiflet2siffelt2sifflett1siffllet1sifflte2siflet1siflfet2
Edit distance from "sifflet"

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 "sifflet"?
"sifflet" is spelled S-I-F-F-L-E-T. The IPA pronunciation is \si.flɛ\.
What does "sifflet" mean?
As a noun, "sifflet" means: Petit instrument à vent, constitué d’un tube court dont l’embouchure est souvent biseautée et qui produit un son aigu.
What words are commonly confused with "sifflet"?
"sifflet" is commonly confused with "simplet", "sifflets", "soufflet". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sifflet"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sifflet" is \si.flɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sifflet" come from?
"sifflet" 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 "sifflet", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sodomie#18,323régence#18,314risquez#18,312renouer#18,305

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

shadow9 variantsrêvait9 variantssucrée9 variantsrentes9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list