chétif
\ʃe.tif\
The verdict
“chétif” is uncommon French (frequency #55,143 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,143
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est faible, frêle. — Note d’usage : Se dit des personnes ou des choses qui n’ont pas l’apparence ou les qualités, la force qu’elles devraient avoir.
Corpus desk
Index FR-chetif · chétif · French
chétif · rank #55,143 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,143
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH Châteaudun
Nearest frequency peer: Châteaudun (-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 « chétif »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- chouiner
chouiner
44,861 corpus weight
- Châteaudun
Châteaudun
44,859 corpus weight
- chétif
chétif
44,858 corpus weight
- cintrée
cintrée
44,857 corpus weight
- circonspect…
circonspection
44,856 corpus weight
- clamant
clamant
44,855 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « chétif » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chétif |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ʃe.tif\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #55,143 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « chétif » en français
Rare enough to double-check
chétif is uncommon French at frequency #55,143 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ʃe.tif\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui est faible, frêle. — Note d’usage : Se dit des personnes ou des choses qui n’ont pas l’apparence ou les qualités, la force qu’elles devraient avoir.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for chétif, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 chétif, spelled C-H-É-T-I-F.
Definition
- 1Qui est faible, frêle. — Note d’usage : Se dit des personnes ou des choses qui n’ont pas l’apparence ou les qualités, la force qu’elles devraient avoir.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chétif appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il me restait une chétive maison, je l'ai vue pillée et détruite.
- Je ne me lassais point d’admirer la bizarre réunion de ces misérables mortels […] que le hasard s’était néanmoins plu à rassembler pour les soumettre à une existence aussi chétive, aussi précaire.
Synonyms
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "chétif", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).