wou
\wɔu\
The verdict
“wou” is uncommon French (frequency #55,686 among 549 “W” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,686
- frequency rank, French
- 549
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Première, deuxième et troisième personne du singulier du prétérit du verbe willen.
Corpus desk
Index FR-wou · wou · French
wou · rank #55,686 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,686
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 549
- PHOTO-FINISH wolfram
Nearest frequency peer: wolfram (-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 « wou »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- wealth
wealth
44,319 corpus weight
- wolfram
wolfram
44,316 corpus weight
- wou
wou
44,315 corpus weight
- xin
xin
44,314 corpus weight
- zn
zn
44,313 corpus weight
- zéphyr
zéphyr
44,312 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « wou » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \wɔu\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #55,686 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « wou » en français
Rare enough to double-check
wou is uncommon French at frequency #55,686 among 549 “W” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \wɔu\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Première, deuxième et troisième personne du singulier du prétérit du verbe willen.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for wou, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is wou, spelled W-O-U.
Definition
- 1Première, deuxième et troisième personne du singulier du prétérit du verbe willen.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how wou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hij wou haar iets vertellen.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).