cauchemar
French, noun/kɔʃ.maʁ/
cauchemar is spelled C-A-U-C-H-E-M-A-R (9 letters) and appears 10 times per million words in written French, the 6,605th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Cauchemar is a French masculine noun meaning “nightmare” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Oppression ou étouffement qui survient quelquefois durant le sommeil, mais qui cesse dès qu’on se réveille”.
What does cauchemar mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinenightmare
Coordinate term: rêve
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Oppression ou étouffement qui survient quelquefois durant le sommeil, mais qui cesse dès qu’on se réveille. 2. Rêve pénible ou effrayant, provoquant l'angoisse. 3. Situation qui laisse un mauvais souvenir ou que l'on redoute. 4. Personne ou chose très ennuyeuse, très importune.
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 cauchemar
- cauchemars plural
- cauchemard
- cochemare obsolete
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce cauchemar?
- /kɔʃ.maʁ/
- /koʃ.maʁ/
- \koʃ.maʁ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to cauchemar
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is cauchemar in French?
cauchemar appears 10 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).