austère
French, adjective/ɔs.tɛːʁ/
austère is spelled A-U-S-T-È-R-E (7 letters) and appears 1.9 times per million words in written French, the 21,266th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Austère is a French adjective meaning “austere” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Qui est rigoureux pour le corps et qui mortifie les sens et l’esprit”.
What does austère mean in English?
adjective
- 1
austere
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Qui est rigoureux pour le corps et qui mortifie les sens et l’esprit. 2. Qui est sévère pour soi et pour les autres. 3. Caractère de gravité qui exclut les agréments. 4. Qualifie une saveur âpre et astringente.
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 austère
- austères plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce austère?
- /ɔs.tɛːʁ/
- /os.tɛːʁ/
- \ɔs.tɛʁ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to austère
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is austère in French?
austère appears 1.9 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).