atchoum

\at.ʃum\

/\at.ʃum\/ onomatopoeia

The verdict

“atchoum” is uncommon French (frequency #78,140 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as an onomatopoeia. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#78,140
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Onomatopée imitant le bruit d’un éternuement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-atchoum · atchoum · French

atchoum · rank #78,140 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #78,140
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH aspirons

Nearest frequency peer: aspirons (-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 « atchoum »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « atchoum » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for atchoum
PropertyValue
Headwordatchoum
LanguageFrench
Part of speechOnomatopoeia
IPA\at.ʃum\
Letters7
Frequency rank#78,140
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « atchoum » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).atchoumtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « aspirons » (#78,139), « atomiser » (#78,141), « ASIC » (#78,138). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « atchoum » est au #78,140. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

atchoum is uncommon French at frequency #78,140 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as anonomatopoeia, transcribed \at.ʃum\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Onomatopée imitant le bruit d’un éternuement.".

atchoum has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. 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.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is atchoum, spelled A-T-C-H-O-U-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    Onomatopée imitant le bruit d’un éternuement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le bruit de l'éternuement … est un bruit articulé, c'est un mot de deux syllabes que le vulgaire « Atchoum ! » traduit assez bien.
  2. Les Parisiens grelottants Passent de jujube à réglisse Et depuis six mois je n’entends Qu’ « Atchoum ! » et que « Dieu vous bénisse ! »

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

How do you spell "atchoum"?
"atchoum" is spelled A-T-C-H-O-U-M. The IPA pronunciation is \at.ʃum\.
What does "atchoum" mean?
As an onomatopoeia, "atchoum" means: Onomatopée imitant le bruit d’un éternuement.
How do you pronounce "atchoum"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "atchoum" is \at.ʃum\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "atchoum" come from?
"atchoum" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "atchoum", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list