captiver
\kap.ti.ve\
The verdict
“captiver” is uncommon French (frequency #50,704 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,704
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Retenir prisonnier.
Corpus desk
Index FR-captiver · captiver · French
captiver · rank #50,704 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,704
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH Cappadoce
Nearest frequency peer: Cappadoce (-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 « captiver »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- cancérogène
cancérogène
49,299 corpus weight
- Cappadoce
Cappadoce
49,298 corpus weight
- captiver
captiver
49,297 corpus weight
- cardan
cardan
49,296 corpus weight
- caribous
caribous
49,295 corpus weight
- Castex
Castex
49,294 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « captiver » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | captiver |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \kap.ti.ve\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #50,704 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « captiver » en français
Rare enough to double-check
captiver is uncommon French at frequency #50,704 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \kap.ti.ve\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for captiver, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is captiver, spelled C-A-P-T-I-V-E-R.
Definition
- 1Retenir prisonnier.
- 2Séduire, gagner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how captiver appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Refusant de se captiver sous une loi d'amour, il ne peut éviter d'être assujetti aux lois les plus dures d'une rigoureuse justice.
Toute une chapelle gothique recueillie pierre par pierre ! Tout un peuple de statuettes, captivé ! et remplacé par des bonshommes en stuc !
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 "captiver", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).