achever
French, verb/aʃ.ve/
achever is spelled A-C-H-E-V-E-R (7 letters) and appears 6.8 times per million words in written French, the 8,979th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Achever is a French verb meaning “to finish, to complete” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Finir une chose commencée”.
What does achever mean in English?
verb
- 1
to finish, to complete
- 2
to finish off (someone who is already incapacitated)
- 3
to finish
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Finir une chose commencée. 2. Cesser quelque chose. 3. Consommer la ruine, la perte, le malheur (de quelqu’un). 4. Frapper à mort quelqu’un qui est déjà blessé.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of achever
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- achevant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- achevé participle past
- achève first-person indicative present
- achèves indicative present second-person
- achevons first-person indicative plural
- achevez indicative plural present
- achèvent indicative plural present
- achevais first-person imperfect indicative
- achevait imperfect indicative singular
- achevions first-person imperfect indicative
- acheviez imperfect indicative plural
- achevaient imperfect indicative plural
- achevai first-person historic indicative
- achevas historic indicative past
- acheva historic indicative past
- achevâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce achever?
- /aʃ.ve/
- \a.ʃə.ve\
- \aʃ.ve\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to achever
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is achever in French?
achever appears 6.8 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).