civette

\si.vɛt\

/\si.vɛt\/ noun

The verdict

“civette” is uncommon French (frequency #91,534 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,534
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Viverridé carnivore d’Afrique et d’Asie, au corps allongé, recherché pour le musc sécrété par deux glandes anales.

Corpus desk

Index FR-civette · civette · French

civette · rank #91,534 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #91,534
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH citerons

Nearest frequency peer: citerons (-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 « civette »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for civette
PropertyValue
Headwordcivette
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\si.vɛt\
Letters7
Frequency rank#91,534
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « civette » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).civettetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « citerons » (#91,533), « clever » (#91,535), « closet » (#91,536). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « civette » est au #91,534. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

civette is uncommon French at frequency #91,534 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \si.vɛt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for civette, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is civette, spelled C-I-V-E-T-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Viverridé carnivore d’Afrique et d’Asie, au corps allongé, recherché pour le musc sécrété par deux glandes anales.
  2. 2
    Fourrure de cet animal, également recherchée.
  3. 3
    Musc de l’animal, utilisé dans la préparation de parfums.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La genette du bassin méditerranéen est la seule parente européenne des civettes.
  2. Cette dernière avait travaillé dans la cantine d’une usine située dans la ville de Quang Zhouxing, au nord de la Chine, qui servait de la civette, interdite à la consommation par le gouvernement après l’épidémie de SRAS de 2003.

Synonyms

chat musqué

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

How do you spell "civette"?
"civette" is spelled C-I-V-E-T-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \si.vɛt\.
What does "civette" mean?
As a noun, "civette" means: Viverridé carnivore d’Afrique et d’Asie, au corps allongé, recherché pour le musc sécrété par deux glandes anales.
How do you pronounce "civette"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "civette" is \si.vɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "civette" come from?
"civette" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "civette", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list