waou

\waw\

/\waw\/ intj

The verdict

“waou” is uncommon French (frequency #60,475 among 549 “W” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,475
frequency rank, French
549
“W” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Orthographe alternative de waouh.

Corpus desk

Index FR-waou · waou · French

waou · rank #60,475 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,475
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 549
  • PHOTO-FINISH végétative

Nearest frequency peer: végétative (-2 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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « waou »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « waou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for waou
PropertyValue
Headwordwaou
LanguageFrench
Part of speechInterjection
IPA\waw\
Letters4
Frequency rank#60,475
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « waou » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).waoutombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « végétative » (#60,473), « whistle » (#60,477), « voili » (#60,472). Parmi 549 lemmes en « W », « waou » est au #60,475. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

waou is uncommon French at frequency #60,475 among 549 “W” headwords, classed as aninterjection, transcribed \waw\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Orthographe alternative de waouh.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for waou, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is waou, spelled W-A-O-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Orthographe alternative de waouh.

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 "waou"?
"waou" is spelled W-A-O-U. The IPA pronunciation is \waw\.
What does "waou" mean?
As an interjection, "waou" means: Orthographe alternative de waouh.
How do you pronounce "waou"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "waou" is \waw\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "waou" come from?
"waou" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list