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cataphract

ca·ta·phract/ˈkætəˌfɹækt/noun, adjective

cataphract is spelled C-A-T-A-P-H-R-A-C-T: 10 letters and 3 syllables (ca·ta·phract). It appears about once in every 66 million words in written English, the 255,765th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cataphract means “Defensive armour covering the entire body of a soldier and often the soldier's horse as well, especially the linked mail or scale armour of some…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cataphract is cataphracts.

How many letters and syllables are in cataphract?

Letters10: C-A-T-A-P-H-R-A-C-T
Syllables3: ca·ta·phract
In writingabout once in every 66 million words; the 255,765th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is cataphract?

Cataphract appears about once in every 66 million words in written English, the 255,765th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce cataphract?

  • UK /ˈkætəfɹækt/
  • US /ˈkætəˌfɹækt/
  • US [ˈkæɾə-]

Cataphract has 3 syllables, split ca·ta·phract in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-cataphract.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of cataphract

  • cataphracts plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cataphract mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Defensive armour covering the entire body of a soldier and often the soldier's horse as well, especially the linked mail or scale armour of some eastern nations.

  2. 2

    obsoleteAn outer covering of some fish resembling armour or plate.

  3. 3

    A soldier (especially a horseman) covered with a cataphract (etymology 1, sense 1).

  4. 4

    A galley with the upper tier of rowers shielded.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of a galley such as a trireme: with the upper tier of rowers shielded rather than exposed.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cataphract in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portuguesecatafracta (armour for the entire body of a soldier and…), catafractário (soldier covered with a cataphract)
Frenchcataphractaire (soldier covered with a cataphract)
GermanKataphrakt (soldier covered with a cataphract)
Spanishcatafracto (soldier covered with a cataphract)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does cataphract come from?

From Latin cataphractes (“suit of armour”), from Ancient Greek κατάφρακτος (katáphraktos, “suit of armour”), from κατα- (kata-, prefix indicating a great degree or intensity) + φρακτός (phraktós, “protected; fenced in”) (from φράσσω (phrássō, “to fortify, secure; to fence in”)) + -της (-tēs, suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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