cathartique

\ka.taʁ.tik\

/\ka.taʁ.tik\/ adj

The verdict

“cathartique” is uncommon French (frequency #62,128 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,128
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Relatif à la catharsis, qui produit une action purificatrice, libératrice.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cathartique · cathartique · French

cathartique · rank #62,128 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,128
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH carpette

Nearest frequency peer: carpette (-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 « cathartique »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « cathartique » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cathartique
PropertyValue
Headwordcathartique
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ka.taʁ.tik\
Letters11
Frequency rank#62,128
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cathartique » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cathartiquetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « carpette » (#62,127), « censitaire » (#62,129), « carnavalesque » (#62,126). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cathartique » est au #62,128. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cathartique is uncommon French at frequency #62,128 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ka.taʁ.tik\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

cathartique has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is cathartique, spelled C-A-T-H-A-R-T-I-Q-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Relatif à la catharsis, qui produit une action purificatrice, libératrice.
  2. 2
    Purgatif.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cathartique appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. La méthode cathartique est une méthode psychothérapique reposant sur la recherche de la catharsis chez le patient, pratiquée par Freud avant la mise au point de la méthode psychanalytique proprement dite.
  2. Est-il permis d’avoir une vie privée compliquée quand la grande Histoire elle-même se complique à son tour et devient folle ? C’était cette rencontre entre l’Histoire et son histoire personnelle, la nôtre, qui mettait ma mère au rouet et dont Monny fut le messager cathartique.

Synonyms

eccathartique

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

How do you spell "cathartique"?
"cathartique" is spelled C-A-T-H-A-R-T-I-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.taʁ.tik\.
What does "cathartique" mean?
As an adjective, "cathartique" means: Relatif à la catharsis, qui produit une action purificatrice, libératrice.
How do you pronounce "cathartique"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cathartique" is \ka.taʁ.tik\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cathartique" come from?
"cathartique" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cathartique", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list