whistle

\wɪsl̩\

/\wɪsl̩\/ noun

The verdict

“whistle” is uncommon French (frequency #60,477 among 549 “W” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,477
frequency rank, French
549
“W” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sifflet.

Corpus desk

Index FR-whistle · whistle · French

whistle · rank #60,477 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,477
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 549
  • PHOTO-FINISH wicked

Nearest frequency peer: wicked (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « whistle »

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 « whistle » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for whistle
PropertyValue
Headwordwhistle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\wɪsl̩\
Letters7
Frequency rank#60,477
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « whistle » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).whistletombe 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: « wicked » (#60,478), « waou » (#60,475), « Wissembourg » (#60,480). Parmi 549 lemmes en « W », « whistle » est au #60,477. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

whistle is uncommon French at frequency #60,477 among 549 “W” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \wɪsl̩\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sifflet.".

whistle doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is whistle, spelled W-H-I-S-T-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sifflet.

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 "whistle"?
"whistle" is spelled W-H-I-S-T-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \wɪsl̩\.
What does "whistle" mean?
As a noun, "whistle" means: Sifflet.
How do you pronounce "whistle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "whistle" is \wɪsl̩\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "whistle" come from?
"whistle" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "whistle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list