cliché
French, noun
cliché is spelled C-L-I-C-H-É (6 letters) and appears 7.6 times per million words in written French, the 8,212th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Cliché is a French masculine noun meaning “stereotype (printing plate)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). Without its accent, cliche is a different word: “first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Planche en relief obtenu au moyen du clichage : plaque gravée en relief par un procédé photographique pour…”.
What does cliché mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinestereotype (printing plate)
La reproduction dans la presse de dessins et de photographies se fait au moyen de clichés typographiques.
- 2
masculinenegative
- 3
masculinesnapshot
prendre un cliché
- 4
masculinecliché; stereotype (overused phrase or expression)
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
adjective: 1. Commun, rebattu, banal, convenu.
noun: 1. Planche en relief obtenu au moyen du clichage : plaque gravée en relief par un procédé photographique pour imprimer une image ou un texte en typographie. 2. Épreuve négative. 3. Image d’une photographie imprimée 4. Expression, idée, image ou représentation banale et convenue, ressassée à force d’être répétée.
noun: 1. Poignée de porte.
noun: 1. Diarrhée.
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 cliché
- clichés plural
- clichée singular feminine
- clichées plural feminine
- cliches plural
- clenche
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to cliché
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is cliché in French?
cliché appears 7.6 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).