cité
French, noun
cité is spelled C-I-T-É (4 letters) and appears 68 times per million words in written French, the 1,228th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Cité is a French feminine noun meaning “city” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of citer. Without its accent, cite is a different word: “first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Ville, surtout quand on veut en faire ressortir l’importance”.
What does cité mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininecity
- 2
femininecitizenship
obtenir la cité
- 3
femininea fortified city, city-state, or historic city centre specifically
la Cité des Papes
- 4
Canadafemininea municipality with city rather than town status
- 5
femininehousing estate
- 6
femininecomplex of buildings or district set aside for a specific purpose; campus
verb
- 1
past participle of citer
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Ville, surtout quand on veut en faire ressortir l’importance. 2. Habitants d’une ville ; ensemble des citoyens qui la composent. 3. Citoyenneté. 4. Constitution de l’État, dans les expressions :
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of cité
- cités plural
- citée feminine
- citées feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to cité
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is cité in French?
cité appears 68 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).