ciller

\si.je\

/\si.je\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ciller” is uncommon French (frequency #67,377 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,377
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fermer et rouvrir l’œil rapidement en rapprochant puis séparant les paupières.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ciller · ciller · French

ciller · rank #67,377 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,377
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH chroma

Nearest frequency peer: chroma (-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 « ciller »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ciller
PropertyValue
Headwordciller
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\si.je\
Letters6
Frequency rank#67,377
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « ciller » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).cillertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « chroma » (#67,376), « cisalpine » (#67,378), « clignoter » (#67,379). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « ciller » est au #67,377. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ciller is uncommon French at frequency #67,377 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \si.je\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for ciller in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is ciller, spelled C-I-L-L-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fermer et rouvrir l’œil rapidement en rapprochant puis séparant les paupières.
  2. 2
    S’imposer, revendiquer.
  3. 3
    Coudre ensemble les paupières d’un oiseau.
  4. 4
    ou Se dit du cheval qui commence à avoir quelques poils blancs au-dessus des yeux, vers l’arcade orbitaire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Je ne bougeai pas et n’articulai plus un cri : j’étais devenu tout à fait insensible, et tandis qu’Ir… me brûlait, je pouvais le regarder sans ciller.
  2. C’est terrible, un miroir. Si tu es satisfait de ce que tu y vois, alors, sois en paix. Mais si tu cilles, il ne te reste qu’à baisser la tête. Car tu as entrevu toute la misère du monde, la vraie.

This word in other languages

blink(English)parpadear(Español)blinzeln(Deutsch)piscar(Português)

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 "ciller"?
"ciller" is spelled C-I-L-L-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \si.je\.
What does "ciller" mean?
As a verb, "ciller" means: Fermer et rouvrir l’œil rapidement en rapprochant puis séparant les paupières.
How do you pronounce "ciller"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ciller" is \si.je\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ciller" come from?
"ciller" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "ciller", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

chroma#67,376cochez#67,385chalut#67,368Cazaux#67,365

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list