chatoyer
\ʃa.twa.je\
The verdict
“chatoyer” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Changer de couleur selon les différents aspects.
Corpus desk
Index FR-chatoyer · chatoyer · French
chatoyer · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | chatoyer |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ʃa.twa.je\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « chatoyer » en français
Rare enough to double-check
chatoyer is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \ʃa.twa.je\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Changer de couleur selon les différents aspects.".
chatoyer doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is chatoyer, spelled C-H-A-T-O-Y-E-R.
Definition
- 1Changer de couleur selon les différents aspects.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chatoyer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il avait tiré la bague d’opale de son doigt. Elle chatoyait, dans la fin du jour, comme un reflet de beauté, de jeunesse, de plaisir.
On n’entendait que […] le battement régulier de la vieille horloge comtoise dont l’énorme lentille de cuivre s’avivait avec le flot de soleil qui déferlait en chatoyant.
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.