battre la chamade

\ba.tʁə la ʃa.mad\

/\ba.tʁə la ʃa.mad\/ verb

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency French
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Signaler son intention de capituler au moyen d’un tambour.

Key facts for battre la chamade
PropertyValue
Headwordbattre la chamade
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ba.tʁə la ʃa.mad\
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “battre la chamade” sits in French frequency

battre la chamade falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

battre la chamade is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \ba.tʁə la ʃa.mad\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

battre la chamade has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 battre la chamade, spelled B-A-T-T-R-E- -L-A- -C-H-A-M-A-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Signaler son intention de capituler au moyen d’un tambour.
  2. 2
    Capituler, succomber à une tentation.
  3. 3
    Battre rapidement sous l’effet d’une vive émotion.
  4. 4
    Battre rapidement ou fortement.

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 "battre la chamade"?
"battre la chamade" is spelled B-A-T-T-R-E- -L-A- -C-H-A-M-A-D-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.tʁə la ʃa.mad\.
What does "battre la chamade" mean?
As a verb, "battre la chamade" means: Signaler son intention de capituler au moyen d’un tambour.
How do you pronounce "battre la chamade"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "battre la chamade" is \ba.tʁə la ʃa.mad\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "battre la chamade" come from?
"battre la chamade" 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.

Using “battre la chamade”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is B-A-T-T-R-E- -L-A- -C-H-A-M-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ba.tʁə la ʃa.mad\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list