astérisme

\as.te.ʁism\

/\as.te.ʁism\/ noun

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency French
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Constellation, figure dessinée par plusieurs étoiles.

Corpus desk

Index FR-asterisme · astérisme · French

astérisme · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 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 astérisme
PropertyValue
Headwordastérisme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\as.te.ʁism\
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « astérisme » en français

astérismesiège au-delà des 100.000 formes les plus fréquentes du français, dans la traîne du lexique spécialisé ou peu usité.

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

Rare enough to double-check

astérisme is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \as.te.ʁism\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

astérisme has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, 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 astérisme, spelled A-S-T-É-R-I-S-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Constellation, figure dessinée par plusieurs étoiles.
  2. 2
    Phénomène optique en forme d'étoile à 4 ou 6 branches nommée aussi astérie, que l’on observe dans certains minéraux (tel le grenat, le saphir, etc.) par diffraction de la lumière.
  3. 3
    Signe typographique formé de trois astérisques disposés en triangle (⁂). Il permet d’attirer l’attention sur un passage ou bien de séparer les sous-chapitres d’un livre.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Les astérismes sont marqués sur le globe céleste.

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 "astérisme"?
"astérisme" is spelled A-S-T-É-R-I-S-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \as.te.ʁism\.
What does "astérisme" mean?
As a noun, "astérisme" means: Constellation, figure dessinée par plusieurs étoiles.
How do you pronounce "astérisme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "astérisme" is \as.te.ʁism\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "astérisme" come from?
"astérisme" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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