tête-de-loup

\tɛːt.də.lu\

/\tɛːt.də.lu\/ noun

The verdict

“tête-de-loup” 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) - Brosse sphérique au bout d’un long manche, servant à nettoyer les parties peu accessibles d’un lieu.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tete-de-loup · tête-de-loup · French

tête-de-loup · 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.

Key facts for tête-de-loup
PropertyValue
Headwordtête-de-loup
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tɛːt.də.lu\
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tête-de-loup » en français

tête-de-loupn'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

tête-de-loup is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \tɛːt.də.lu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for tête-de-loup, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 tête-de-loup, spelled T-Ê-T-E---D-E---L-O-U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    Brosse sphérique au bout d’un long manche, servant à nettoyer les parties peu accessibles d’un lieu.
  2. 2
    Coupe de cheveux en brosse.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Juliette me mena jusqu’à un cagibi. Là, entre des balais et des têtes-de-loups, elle me montra une créature éblouissante. Une fée d’acier et de chrome : une Vespa.
  2. Il bâilla, passa ses doigts écartés dans ses cheveux noirs coupés en tête-de-loup, se leva, empoigna sa valise et sortit.

Synonyms

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 "tête-de-loup"?
"tête-de-loup" is spelled T-Ê-T-E---D-E---L-O-U-P. The IPA pronunciation is \tɛːt.də.lu\.
What does "tête-de-loup" mean?
As a noun, "tête-de-loup" means: Brosse sphérique au bout d’un long manche, servant à nettoyer les parties peu accessibles d’un lieu.
How do you pronounce "tête-de-loup"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tête-de-loup" is \tɛːt.də.lu\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tête-de-loup" come from?
"tête-de-loup" 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