cercle vicieux
\sɛʁkl vi.sjø\
The verdict
“cercle vicieux” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Raisonnement circulaire invalide.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cercle-vicieux · cercle vicieux · French
cercle vicieux · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cercle vicieux |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \sɛʁkl vi.sjø\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « cercle vicieux » en français
Rare enough to double-check
cercle vicieux is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \sɛʁkl vi.sjø\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
cercle vicieux doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is cercle vicieux, spelled C-E-R-C-L-E- -V-I-C-I-E-U-X.
Definition
- 1Raisonnement circulaire invalide.
- 2Causes et effets qui s’entretiennent ou s’amplifient mutuellement et dégradent une situation.
- 3Cercle lié au vice.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cercle vicieux appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
En établissant le droit de vie & de mort sur le droit d’esclavage, & le droit d’esclavage sur le droit de vie & de mort, n’est-il pas clair qu’on tombe dans le cercle vicieux ?
Tous les hommes sont mortels; Socrate est homme; Socrate est mortel. Ce raisonnement est un cercle vicieux, car je ne peux affirmer la première proposition que si je suis convaincu de la vérité de la dernière. Socrate non mortel serait en effet une exception suffisante pour infirmer la certitude de la majeure.
Synonyms
Antonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.