effleurage
noun, verb
effleurage is a noun meaning “A form of massage involving smooth strokes of the skin with one's hands” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-F-F-L-E-U-R-A-G-E, and it appears about once in every 91 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of effleurage is effleurages.
What does effleurage mean?
noun
- 1
A form of massage involving smooth strokes of the skin with one's hands.
verb
- 1
To gently stroke the skin in a circular motion with the palm of one's hands.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of effleurage
- effleurages plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- effleuraging participle, present
- effleuraged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is effleurage?
Effleurage appears about once in every 91 million words in written English, the 305,310th 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).
Where does effleurage come from?
Borrowed from French effleurage, from effleurer (“to stroke lightly”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).