canicule
French, noun/ka.ni.kyl/
canicule is spelled C-A-N-I-C-U-L-E (8 letters) and appears 3.1 times per million words in written French, the 15,592nd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Canicule is a French feminine noun meaning “the dog days of late summer” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “L’étoile Sirius, dans la constellation du Grand Chien”.
What does canicule mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininethe dog days of late summer
- 2
feminineheat wave, hot spell (regardless of the date, and especially when posing a health risk)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. L’étoile Sirius, dans la constellation du Grand Chien. 2. Période des grandes chaleurs estivales, traditionnellement associée au lever de Sirius. 3. Épisode de chaleur intense et durable, de jour comme de nuit, susceptible de présenter un risque sanitaire.
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 canicule
- canicules plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce canicule?
- /ka.ni.kyl/
- \ka.ni.kyl\
- [ka.ni.kyl]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to canicule
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is canicule in French?
canicule appears 3.1 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).