civiliser
\si.vi.li.ze\
The verdict
“civiliser” is uncommon French (frequency #56,491 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,491
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rendre civil, policé et sociable.
Corpus desk
Index FR-civiliser · civiliser · French
civiliser · rank #56,491 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,491
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH chums
Nearest frequency peer: chums (-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 « civiliser »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- chieuse
chieuse
43,513 corpus weight
- chimérique
chimérique
43,512 corpus weight
- chums
chums
43,511 corpus weight
- civiliser
civiliser
43,510 corpus weight
- clouds
clouds
43,508 corpus weight
- clutch
clutch
43,507 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « civiliser » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | civiliser |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \si.vi.li.ze\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #56,491 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « civiliser » en français
Rare enough to double-check
civiliser is uncommon French at frequency #56,491 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \si.vi.li.ze\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for civiliser, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is civiliser, spelled C-I-V-I-L-I-S-E-R.
Definition
- 1Rendre civil, policé et sociable.
- 2Faire passer d'une condition primitive à un état de plus haut développement matériel, intellectuel, social.
- 3Rendre plus affable, de manières plus douces.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how civiliser appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Miss Lydia s'était proposé une noble tâche, celle de civiliser cet ours [le jeune Orso] des montagnes […]. Depuis qu'elle avait pris la peine de l'étudier, elle s'était dit […] que pour elle il serait glorieux de convertir un Corse.
Le commerce des grecs a civilisé les barbares.
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 "civiliser"?
What does "civiliser" mean?
How do you pronounce "civiliser"?
What language does "civiliser" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "civiliser", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).