start-up

\staʁ.tœp\

/\staʁ.tœp\/ noun

The verdict

“start-up” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Jeune entreprise innovante et dynamique, à croissance rapide.

Corpus desk

Index FR-start-up · start-up · French

start-up · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 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.

Key facts for start-up
PropertyValue
Headwordstart-up
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\staʁ.tœp\
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « start-up » en français

start-upn'entre pas dans le top 100.000 du français: zone de termes techniques, archaïques ou rares.

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

Rare enough to double-check

start-up is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \staʁ.tœp\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Jeune entreprise innovante et dynamique, à croissance rapide.".

No misspelling variants are generated for start-up in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 start-up, spelled S-T-A-R-T---U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    Jeune entreprise innovante et dynamique, à croissance rapide.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Décembre 1891. […]. Et, dans cette France de la IIIᵉ République, l’avenir de l’économie s’écrit en grande partie dans les Ardennes. Les start-ups de l’époque se dénichent dans la sidérurgie ou la forge. Les entrepreneurs les plus en vue se nomment Deville ou Wendel.
  2. Leader mondial de la sécurité informatique, figurant parmi les pionniers des avions sans pilote, de l’imagerie médicale et de l’irrigation au goutte-à-goutte, Israël est un pays où les starts-up et l’innovation fleurissent.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "start-up"?
"start-up" is spelled S-T-A-R-T---U-P. The IPA pronunciation is \staʁ.tœp\.
What does "start-up" mean?
As a noun, "start-up" means: Jeune entreprise innovante et dynamique, à croissance rapide.
How do you pronounce "start-up"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "start-up" is \staʁ.tœp\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "start-up" come from?
"start-up" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list