spook
\spuːk\
The verdict
“spook” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fantôme, spectre.
Corpus desk
Index FR-spook · spook · French
spook · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spook |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \spuːk\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « spook » en français
Rare enough to double-check
spook is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \spuːk\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for spook in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 spook, spelled S-P-O-O-K.
Definition
- 1Fantôme, spectre.
- 2Apparition (être imaginaire).
- 3Espion.
- 4Nègre.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how spook appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Almost immediately Mel was summoned by university authorities to justify his use of the word “spooks,” since the two missing students, as it happened, were both African-American, and “spooks” at one time in America was a pejorative designation for blacks, spoken venom milder than “nigger” but intentionally degrading nonetheless.
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.