wow

\waw\

/\waw\/ intj

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

The verdict

“wow” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #3,885) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#3,885
frequency rank, French
549
“W” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Exprime l’étonnement, l’émerveillement ou l’admiration.

Corpus desk

Index FR-wow · wow · French

wow · rank #3,885 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,885
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 549
  • PHOTO-FINISH vertu

Nearest frequency peer: vertu (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “wow”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “wow” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

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).

wow vs wu
33% similar
wow vs wp
33% similar
wow vs WTF
0% similar

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

Key facts for wow
PropertyValue
Headwordwow
LanguageFrench
Part of speechInterjection
IPA\waw\
Letters3
Frequency rank#3,885
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “wow” se place dans la fréquence du français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.wowse 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 « vertu » (#3,884), « écris » (#3,886), « universitaire » (#3,883). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for wow is neighbouring look-alikes ("wu", "wp", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced \waw\. Frequency #3,885 among 549 “W” headwords. Gloss: "Exprime l’étonnement, l’émerveillement ou l’admiration.".

wow doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wu", "wp", "WTF", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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 wow, spelled W-O-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    Exprime l’étonnement, l’émerveillement ou l’admiration.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. « Il y a des choses sur lesquelles nous sommes tous deux d’accord. Nous sommes capables de débattre sans attaquer l’autre personnellement. Nous pouvons être en désaccord sans nous détester l’un l’autre. » Je dis wow.
  2. Selon les partis d’opposition, la décision de fermer les restaurants constitue une honte nationale. Mais aucun ne propose leur réouverture immédiate. La décision est abominable, mais doit être maintenue. Wow !

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 "wow"?
"wow" is spelled W-O-W. The IPA pronunciation is \waw\.
What does "wow" mean?
As an interjection, "wow" means: Exprime l’étonnement, l’émerveillement ou l’admiration.
What words are commonly confused with "wow"?
"wow" is commonly confused with "wu", "wp", "WTF". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "wow"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "wow" is \waw\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "wow" come from?
"wow" 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 "wow", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

nan#3,862der#3,909Joe#3,859hop#3,853

What to do next

You've looked up "wow". Here's where to go from here.

  • "wow" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "wu". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #3,885 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "W" letter cohort. W–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list