acédie

\a.se.di\

/\a.se.di\/ noun

The verdict

“acédie” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
6
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Péché de la paresse et de la désolation spirituelle, dépression spirituelle (ennui, morosité, dégoût, abattement, manque d’enthousiasme et d’intérêt, etc.)

Corpus desk

Index FR-acedie · acédie · French

acédie · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for acédie
PropertyValue
Headwordacédie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\a.se.di\
Letters6
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « acédie » en français

acédien'entre pas dans le top 100.000 du français: zone de termes techniques, archaïques ou rares.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

acédie is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \a.se.di\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Péché de la paresse et de la désolation spirituelle, dépression spirituelle (ennui, morosité, dégoût, abattement, manque d’enthousiasme et d’intérêt, etc.)".

Zero misspellings are on record for acédie in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is acédie, spelled A-C-É-D-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Péché de la paresse et de la désolation spirituelle, dépression spirituelle (ennui, morosité, dégoût, abattement, manque d’enthousiasme et d’intérêt, etc.)

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Contre l’acédie, je ne me rappelle plus quel Père recommande le travail manuel. Admirable conseil, que j’ai toujours pratiqué spontanément : il n’y a pas de cafard, cette acédie séculière, qui résiste au bricolage.
  2. Parlant du moine qui expérimente l'épreuve de l'acédie, saint Macaire dit que les tentations et les épreuves de toutes sortes l'amènent au bord de l'abîme où il est « à deux doigts » de culbuter.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "acédie"?
"acédie" is spelled A-C-É-D-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \a.se.di\.
What does "acédie" mean?
As a noun, "acédie" means: Péché de la paresse et de la désolation spirituelle, dépression spirituelle (ennui, morosité, dégoût, abattement, manque d’enthousiasme et d’intérêt, etc.)
How do you pronounce "acédie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "acédie" is \a.se.di\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "acédie" come from?
"acédie" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list