vieille école

noun

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency French
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Manières à l’ancienne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-vieille-ecole · vieille école · French

vieille école · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-7 7 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "V" 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 vieille école
PropertyValue
Headwordvieille école
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « vieille école » en français

vieille écolesiège au-delà des 100.000 formes les plus fréquentes du français, dans la traîne du lexique spécialisé ou peu usité.

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

Rare enough to double-check

vieille école is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Manières à l’ancienne.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for vieille école, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology 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 vieille école, spelled V-I-E-I-L-L-E- -É-C-O-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Manières à l’ancienne.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Comme chaque fois que je nippais en milord, costume en cashmere, les pieds campés dans des Richelieu, j'avais une pensée pour le beau-père de mon ami P., un voyou de la vieille école, que je n'avais vu que trois fois dans ma vie, mais dont la ganache m'avait imposé le respect pour toujours.
  2. Bodenstein, en homme bien élevé, s’inclina poliment, très vieille école. il ne manquait que le baise-main.

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 "vieille école"?
"vieille école" is spelled V-I-E-I-L-L-E- -É-C-O-L-E.
What does "vieille école" mean?
As a noun, "vieille école" means: Manières à l’ancienne.
What language does "vieille école" come from?
"vieille école" 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