sur le bout des ongles
\syʁ lə bu dɛz‿ɔ̃ɡl\
The verdict
“sur le bout des ongles” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sur le bout des ongles |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \syʁ lə bu dɛz‿ɔ̃ɡl\ |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sur le bout des ongles” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for sur le bout des ongles is 22 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \syʁ lə bu dɛz‿ɔ̃ɡl\. 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: "Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.".
sur le bout des ongles has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is sur le bout des ongles, spelled S-U-R- -L-E- -B-O-U-T- -D-E-S- -O-N-G-L-E-S.
Definition
- 1Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.
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
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Using “sur le bout des ongles”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-U-R- -L-E- -B-O-U-T- -D-E-S- -O-N-G-L-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \syʁ lə bu dɛz‿ɔ̃ɡl\ (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
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.