catharsis
\ka.taʁ.sis\
The verdict
“catharsis” is uncommon French (frequency #52,557 among 257,141 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,557
- frequency rank, French
- 257,141
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Purification des passions (selon Aristote) chez le spectateur d’une représentation dramatique.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | catharsis |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ka.taʁ.sis\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #52,557 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “catharsis” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
catharsis is uncommon French at frequency #52,557 among 257,141 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ka.taʁ.sis\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for catharsis in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword 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 best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is catharsis, spelled C-A-T-H-A-R-S-I-S.
Definition
- 1Purification des passions (selon Aristote) chez le spectateur d’une représentation dramatique.
- 2Thérapie utilisant l’extériorisation des traumatismes vécus.
Synonyms
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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Using “catharsis”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-A-T-H-A-R-S-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ka.taʁ.sis\ (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
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.