atavisme
\a.ta.vism\
The verdict
“atavisme” is uncommon French (frequency #86,434 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #86,434
- frequency rank, French
- 6,727
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Réapparition, chez le descendant, d’un ou plusieurs caractères qui avaient appartenu à un de ses ancêtres, sans se manifester dans les générations intermédiaires.
Corpus desk
Index FR-atavisme · atavisme · French
atavisme · rank #86,434 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #86,434
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,727
- PHOTO-FINISH ASSR
Nearest frequency peer: ASSR (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rangs de longue queue près de « atavisme »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- ascendantes
ascendantes
13,571 corpus weight
- aspirantes
aspirantes
13,569 corpus weight
- ASSR
ASSR
13,568 corpus weight
- atavisme
atavisme
13,567 corpus weight
- attendis
attendis
13,565 corpus weight
- Auriac
Auriac
13,563 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « atavisme » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | atavisme |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \a.ta.vism\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #86,434 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « atavisme » en français
Rare enough to double-check
atavisme is uncommon French at frequency #86,434 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \a.ta.vism\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for atavisme in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is atavisme, spelled A-T-A-V-I-S-M-E.
Definition
- 1Réapparition, chez le descendant, d’un ou plusieurs caractères qui avaient appartenu à un de ses ancêtres, sans se manifester dans les générations intermédiaires.
- 2Transmission héréditaire de certains traits physiques ou moraux.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how atavisme appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il entend par atavisme la ressemblance que les plantes et les animaux peuvent avoir avec leurs ascendans, même à leurs ascendans éloignés et tout-à-fait oubliés.
Mais ne nous arrêtons pas à toutes ces définitions qui n’expliquent rien ; retenons seulement que, contrairement à la définition de Littré, d’après Darwin et ses élèves, pour qu’il y ait atavisme il faut qu’il y ait interruption dans la ressemblance ; si la chaîne n’est pas interrompue, c’est de l’hérédité ordinaire.
Synonyms
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "atavisme", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).