cautériser

\ko.te.ʁi.ze\

/\ko.te.ʁi.ze\/ verb

The verdict

“cautériser” is uncommon French (frequency #98,860 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#98,860
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Brûler avec un cautère ou un caustique.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cauteriser · cautériser · French

cautériser · rank #98,860 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #98,860
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH catholicos

Nearest frequency peer: catholicos (-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 « cautériser »

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 « cautériser » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cautériser
PropertyValue
Headwordcautériser
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ko.te.ʁi.ze\
Letters10
Frequency rank#98,860
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cautériser » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).cautérisertombe 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: « catholicos » (#98,859), « carnavalesques » (#98,858), « cardinalice » (#98,857). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cautériser » est au #98,860. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cautériser is uncommon French at frequency #98,860 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ko.te.ʁi.ze\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for cautériser in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is cautériser, spelled C-A-U-T-É-R-I-S-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Brûler avec un cautère ou un caustique.
  2. 2
    Détruire par le feu.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais c’est Scarbo qui me mord au cou, et qui, pour cautériser ma blessure sanglante, y plonge son doigt de fer rougi à la fournaise !
  2. D’autres […] pratiquent dans le nez des lésions simulant les ulcères de la morve, et cautérisent adroitement les dilacérations, ordinairement avec le nitrate d’argent.

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 "cautériser"?
"cautériser" is spelled C-A-U-T-É-R-I-S-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ko.te.ʁi.ze\.
What does "cautériser" mean?
As a verb, "cautériser" means: Brûler avec un cautère ou un caustique.
How do you pronounce "cautériser"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cautériser" is \ko.te.ʁi.ze\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cautériser" come from?
"cautériser" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "cautériser", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list