chique
\ʃik\
The verdict
“chique” is uncommon French (frequency #65,021 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,021
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Morceau de tabac ou d'un autre végétal, que l’on mâche.
Corpus desk
Index FR-chique · chique · French
chique · rank #65,021 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,021
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH chilly
Nearest frequency peer: chilly (-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 « chique »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Chazelle
Chazelle
34,983 corpus weight
- chiffrent
chiffrent
34,982 corpus weight
- chilly
chilly
34,981 corpus weight
- chique
chique
34,980 corpus weight
- cimer
cimer
34,979 corpus weight
- claim
claim
34,978 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « chique » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chique |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʃik\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #65,021 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « chique » en français
Rare enough to double-check
chique is uncommon French at frequency #65,021 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʃik\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for chique in our 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, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is chique, spelled C-H-I-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Morceau de tabac ou d'un autre végétal, que l’on mâche.
- 2Gomme à mâcher.
- 3(région de Liège) Bonbon, sucrerie.
- 4Tuméfaction de la joue, due à une infection dentaire (par analogie avec la joue gonflée d’un chiqueur de tabac).
- 5Vol dans les églises.
- 6Petit cocon de soie peu fourni.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chique appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je […] regagnai le bord ; Matteo m'y attendait, le front soucieux, mâchant sans discontinuer sa chique amère où je le soupçonnais d'avoir mis pas mal de bétel, suivant la mode indigène.
Il continuait son travail, mâchonnant de temps à autre une grosse chique qui tour à tour lui gonflait chaque joue et lançant un jet de salive brune à ses pieds.
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 "chique", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).