captive
French, noun
captive is spelled C-A-P-T-I-V-E (7 letters) and appears 1.1 times per million words in written French, the 28,870th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Captive is a French feminine noun meaning “female captive” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of captiver. With an accent, captivé is a different word: “past participle of captiver”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Celle qui a été capturée”.
What does captive mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininefemale captive
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
verb
- 1
past participle of captiver
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Celle qui a été capturée. 2. Celle qui est retenue enfermée, prisonnière.
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 captive
- captives plural
- captif masculine
- captivée feminine
- captivés masculine plural
- captivées feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to captive
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is captive in French?
captive appears 1.1 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).