veau

\vo\

/\vo\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“veau” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #11,686) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#11,686
frequency rank, French
2,061
“V” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit de la vache

Corpus desk

Index FR-veau · veau · French

veau · rank #11,686 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,686
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,061
  • PHOTO-FINISH vampires

Nearest frequency peer: vampires (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « veau »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « veau » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

veau vs vu
50% similar
veau vs via
50% similar
veau vs ver
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for veau
PropertyValue
Headwordveau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\vo\
Letters4
Frequency rank#11,686
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « veau »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.veause place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « vampires » (#11,685), « valenciennes » (#11,684), « vœu » (#11,688). Parmi 2,061 lemmes en « V », « veau » est au #11,686. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for veau is neighbouring look-alikes ("vu", "via", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \vo\. Frequency #11,686 among 2,061 “V” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for veau, with forms such as "evau", "vaeu", and "veua". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "vu", "via", "ver", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is veau, spelled V-E-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit de la vache
  2. 2
    Petit des bovins dont la vache, le buffle et le bison ainsi que d'autres mammifères terrestres comme l'élan et marins comme le béluga et le phoque.
  3. 3
    Chair du petit de la vache ; viande qu’on a mise en quartiers à la boucherie et qu’on y débite.
  4. 4
    Cuir de veau.
  5. 5
    Personne nonchalante et stupide.
  6. 6
    Vieille voiture qui fonctionne mal.
  7. 7
    Masse de glace qui se détache d'un iceberg.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Une bousculade plus violente se produisit ; les petits veaux et les génisses rejetés de droite et de gauche par la poussée des grands bestiaux s’égratignèrent aux ronces flottantes des haies.
  2. Oui, ça n’est pas tout ; aujourd’hui une dent, demain une oreille ; s’ils pouvaient trouver une sauce pour manger nos fressures comme celles des veaux, ils mangeraient du chrétien ! dit la vieille Bonnébault, qui montra son profil menaçant au comte quand il passa, lui lança un regard mielleux et lui fit la révérence.

Synonyms

lovic

This word in other languages

calf(English)ternero(Español)Kalb(Deutsch)bezerro(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • evau
  • vaeu
  • veua
  • vveau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of veau - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

evau2vaeu2veua2vveau1
Edit distance from "veau"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "veau"?
"veau" is spelled V-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \vo\.
What does "veau" mean?
As a noun, "veau" means: Petit de la vache
What words are commonly confused with "veau"?
"veau" is commonly confused with "vu", "via", "ver". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "veau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "veau" is \vo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "veau" come from?
"veau" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "veau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

aveu#11,716Roms#11,656cola#11,734naïf#11,625

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list