French food vocabulary
The 500 most common words in French food writing, with English meanings, everyday words included.
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Words that stand out in food writing
| Word | Meaning | Food rank | Speaking rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| recette | recipe | 26 | 4,566 |
| cuisson | cooking; cooking time | 30 | — |
| pâte | dough; pastry; batter | 38 | 6,888 |
| préparation | preparation; prep time | 46 | 5,932 |
| ingrédients | ingredients | 47 | 9,044 |
| sucre | sugar | 50 | 2,235 |
| crème | cream | 54 | 2,301 |
| huile | oil | 55 | 2,912 |
| recettes | recipes | 56 | 8,731 |
| four | oven | 63 | 3,772 |
| sel | salt | 66 | 3,734 |
| ajouter | to add | 68 | 2,789 |
| cuire | to cook; to bake | 81 | 4,571 |
| cm | centimetres | 82 | — |
| légumes | vegetables | 83 | 4,386 |
| ajoutez | add (you, command) | 85 | 11,169 |
| farine | flour | 86 | 7,795 |
| publié | published | 95 | 5,692 |
| min | min (minutes) | 106 | — |
| citron | lemon | 109 | 4,901 |
| olive | olive | 114 | 7,155 |
| ail | garlic | 121 | 7,634 |
| poivre | pepper (spice) | 124 | 8,349 |
| texture | texture | 125 | — |
| mélanger | to mix | 127 | 7,792 |
| moule | baking mold, tin | 129 | 10,357 |
| cuillère | spoon | 133 | 6,782 |
| saveurs | flavors | 147 | — |
| pâtisserie | pastry; pastry-making | 176 | 10,318 |
| oignon | onion | 177 | 10,269 |
| mélangez | mix (you, command) | 181 | — |
| versez | pour (you, command) | 183 | — |
| cl | cl (centiliter) | 184 | — |
| poêle | frying pan | 191 | 9,363 |
| casserole | saucepan | 199 | 11,550 |
| découvrez | discover (you, imperative) | 217 | 10,925 |
| ml | ml (millilitre) | 222 | — |
| levure | yeast; leavening | 238 | — |
| desserts | desserts | 240 | 13,961 |
| épices | spices | 248 | 10,273 |
| réfrigérateur | refrigerator; fridge | 252 | 10,595 |
| bouillon | broth; stock | 268 | 11,441 |
| tranches | slices | 281 | 12,632 |
| fraîcheur | freshness | 290 | 15,173 |
| cuillères | spoons; spoonfuls | 297 | 13,872 |
| gluten | gluten | 305 | 16,135 |
| cocotte | casserole pot; Dutch oven | 329 | 13,708 |
| amandes | almonds | 342 | 15,049 |
| culinaire | culinary | 352 | 16,157 |
| gingembre | ginger | 364 | 14,594 |
50 of the 500, chosen for ranking much higher in food writing than on the Speaking list, which is counted from film and TV subtitles, or for not being on it at all (—). Words among its first 1,000 are not shown here; the downloads hold all 500, in order.
How it was counted
Apera counted every word on food pages from 111 sites, collected in 2026. Left out: page furniture such as cookie banners, English, web addresses, names and numbers, and words used on only one site. Each form of a word is its own row. The Speaking ranks in the table are from the Speaking list.
This list: counted by Apera from food pages on 111 sites. Speaking ranks from FrequencyWords (CC BY-SA 3.0). Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Sources and credits