tête de bois
\tɛt də bwa\
The verdict
“tête de bois” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tête en bois, sur laquelle on travaille une perruque.
Corpus desk
Index FR-tete-de-bois · tête de bois · French
tête de bois · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" 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 | tête de bois |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \tɛt də bwa\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « tête de bois » en français
Rare enough to double-check
tête de bois is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \tɛt də bwa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
tête de bois doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is tête de bois, spelled T-Ê-T-E- -D-E- -B-O-I-S.
Definition
- 1Tête en bois, sur laquelle on travaille une perruque.
- 2Personne réfractaire, têtue.
- 3Visage fermé, ne manifestant aucune expression.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tête de bois appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Une dame de Belleville, près Paris, avait deux perruques semi-blondes, qu’elle envoyait tour à tour arranger chez un perruquier du lieu. Celui-ci n'avait, pour cette opération, qu'une seule tête de bois ou de carton, sur laquelle les perruques de tout le pays passaient et repassaient successivement.
Ta sœur, après tout, serait gentille, si elle n’avais pas cette tête de bois !
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.