châtelaine

\ʃɑ.tlɛn\

/\ʃɑ.tlɛn\/ noun

The verdict

“châtelaine” is uncommon French (frequency #52,567 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#52,567
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Résidente d’un château de plaisance.

Corpus desk

Index FR-chatelaine · châtelaine · French

châtelaine · rank #52,567 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #52,567
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH chérubins

Nearest frequency peer: chérubins (+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 « châtelaine »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for châtelaine
PropertyValue
Headwordchâtelaine
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʃɑ.tlɛn\
Letters10
Frequency rank#52,567
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « châtelaine » en français

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « chérubins » (#52,568), « chicha » (#52,565), « chas » (#52,564). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « châtelaine » est au #52,567. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

châtelaine is uncommon French at frequency #52,567 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʃɑ.tlɛn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

châtelaine doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is châtelaine, spelled C-H-Â-T-E-L-A-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Résidente d’un château de plaisance.
  2. 2
    Épouse d’un châtelain.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Son corps avait la verdeur que nous admirons dans les feuilles nouvellement dépliées, son esprit avait la profonde concision du sauvage ; elle était enfant par le sentiment, grave par la souffrance, châtelaine et bachelette.
  2. Les vastes salles des vieux châteaux me font peur, et je plains les châtelaines d’avoir été contraintes à faire l’amour dans de grands dortoirs qui avaient un air de cimetière, dans de vastes catafalques qui se faisaient appeler des lits, sur de gros monuments qui prenaient le pseudonyme de fauteuils.

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 "châtelaine"?
"châtelaine" is spelled C-H-Â-T-E-L-A-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃɑ.tlɛn\.
What does "châtelaine" mean?
As a noun, "châtelaine" means: Résidente d’un château de plaisance.
How do you pronounce "châtelaine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "châtelaine" is \ʃɑ.tlɛn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "châtelaine" come from?
"châtelaine" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "châtelaine", 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