frisson
/fɹiˈsoʊn/noun
frisson is a noun meaning “A sudden surge of excitement” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-R-I-S-S-O-N and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 6 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of frisson is frissons.
What does frisson mean?
noun
- 1
A sudden surge of excitement.
I felt a frisson just as they were about to announce the winner in my category.
- 2
A shiver; a thrill.
Whenever the villain's theme played in the movie I felt a sudden frisson down my back.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce frisson?
- UK /ˈfɹiː.sɔ̃ː/
- US /fɹiˈsoʊn/
- US /fɹiˈsɒ̃/
Frisson has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-frisson.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of frisson
- frissons plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is frisson?
Frisson appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 73,203rd 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).
Frisson in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Nervenkitzel, Erregung, Anwandlung , Schauder, Schauer, Zittern |
| Spanish | tiriton , escalofrío |
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 frisson come from?
Borrowed from French frisson.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).