chiasme
\kjasm\
The verdict
“chiasme” is uncommon French (frequency #98,881 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,881
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rapprochement de deux constructions en miroir, suivant le schéma AB/BA afin de produire un effet de contraste ou de symétrie.
Corpus desk
Index FR-chiasme · chiasme · French
chiasme · rank #98,881 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,881
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH Cherhal
Nearest frequency peer: Cherhal (-2 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 « chiasme »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Chazelles
Chazelles
1,124 corpus weight
- Chemla
Chemla
1,123 corpus weight
- Cherhal
Cherhal
1,122 corpus weight
- chiasme
chiasme
1,120 corpus weight
- chouilla
chouilla
1,118 corpus weight
- chouille
chouille
1,117 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « chiasme » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chiasme |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kjasm\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #98,881 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « chiasme » en français
Rare enough to double-check
chiasme is uncommon French at frequency #98,881 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kjasm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
chiasme doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, 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 pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is chiasme, spelled C-H-I-A-S-M-E.
Definition
- 1Rapprochement de deux constructions en miroir, suivant le schéma AB/BA afin de produire un effet de contraste ou de symétrie.
- 2Croix mise en marge des manuscrits, en forme de χ, et indiquant un passage désapprouvé.
- 3Lieu d’entrecroisement des nerfs optiques sur le corps de l’os sphénoïde.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chiasme appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La pièce de Jules Massenet est en effet tirée du roman éponyme d’Anatole France, à l’anticléricalisme revendiqué. La partition n’a pourtant gardé du synopsis que la double trajectoire telle un chiasme de deux destins aux mouvements contraires.
Le chiasme est une figure très belle qui prouve que les Dupondt sont une créature de la syntaxe. On les prend pour des imbéciles notoires, mais en fait, ce sont des personnages qui ont recours à une syntaxe alambiquée et codée pour déjouer l’ennemi.
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 "chiasme", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).