captieux
\kap.sjø\
The verdict
“captieux” is uncommon French (frequency #95,657 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #95,657
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui tend à induire en erreur et à surprendre par quelque finesse, en parlant des raisonnements, des discours, etc.
Corpus desk
Index FR-captieux · captieux · French
captieux · rank #95,657 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #95,657
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH capitonnée
Nearest frequency peer: capitonnée (-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 « captieux »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- capitanat
capitanat
4,347 corpus weight
- capito
capito
4,346 corpus weight
- capitonnée
capitonnée
4,345 corpus weight
- captieux
captieux
4,344 corpus weight
- Capua
Capua
4,343 corpus weight
- Cargèse
Cargèse
4,341 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « captieux » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | captieux |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \kap.sjø\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #95,657 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « captieux » en français
Rare enough to double-check
captieux is uncommon French at frequency #95,657 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \kap.sjø\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for captieux in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is captieux, spelled C-A-P-T-I-E-U-X.
Definition
- 1Qui tend à induire en erreur et à surprendre par quelque finesse, en parlant des raisonnements, des discours, etc.
- 2Sophistique.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how captieux appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Tel le chien du chasseur, s’il a surpris un cerf, arrêté par un fleuve sinueux, ou saisi de frayeur à l’aspect d’un filet garni de plumes pourprées, il le poursuit sans relâche, il le presse de ses longs aboiemens : l’animal timide, qu’épouvantent tour à tour la toile captieuse et la rive escarpée, s’échappe en détours tortueux, et refait mille fois le ch…
J'ai demandé souvent à des vins captieux D'endormir pour un jour la terreur qui me mine ; Le vin rend l'œil plus clair et l'oreille plus fine !
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 "captieux", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).