cauchemar

/\koʃ.maʁ\/ noun

Letters

9 characters

Frequency Rank

#6,592

in French word usage

Misspellings

13

tracked variants

Confusables

1

similar word pairs

cauchemar is aFrenchnoun. It means: Oppression ou étouffement qui survient quelquefois durant le sommeil, mais qui cesse dès qu’on se réveille. Pronounced \koʃ.maʁ\. It ranks #6,592 in French word frequency. Often confused with cauchemars.

Key facts for cauchemar
PropertyValue
Headwordcauchemar
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\koʃ.maʁ\
Letters9
Frequency rank#6,592
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of cauchemar in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for cauchemar is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \koʃ.maʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #6,592 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for cauchemar, with forms such as "acuchemar", "cacuhemar", and "caucchemar". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "cauchemars", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is cauchemar, spelled C-A-U-C-H-E-M-A-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Oppression ou étouffement qui survient quelquefois durant le sommeil, mais qui cesse dès qu’on se réveille.
  2. 2
    Rêve pénible ou effrayant, provoquant l'angoisse.
  3. 3
    Situation qui laisse un mauvais souvenir ou que l'on redoute.
  4. 4
    Personne ou chose très ennuyeuse, très importune.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: acuchemar,cacuhemar,caucchemar,caucehmar,caucheamr,cauchemarr,cauchemmar,cauchemra,cauchhemar,cauchmear,cauhcemar,ccauchemar,cuachemar

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cauchemar

Misspelling Variants of "cauchemar"

acuchemar9cacuhemar9caucchemar10caucehmar9caucheamr9cauchemarr10cauchemmar10cauchemra9
Misspelling Variants of "cauchemar"

Frequency rank: #6,592 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cauchemar"?
"cauchemar" is spelled C-A-U-C-H-E-M-A-R. The IPA pronunciation is \koʃ.maʁ\.
What does "cauchemar" mean?
As a noun, "cauchemar" means: Oppression ou étouffement qui survient quelquefois durant le sommeil, mais qui cesse dès qu’on se réveille.
What words are commonly confused with "cauchemar"?
"cauchemar" is commonly confused with "cauchemars". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cauchemar"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cauchemar" is \koʃ.maʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cauchemar" come from?
"cauchemar" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our French index:

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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.