clignoter

\kli.ɲɔ.te\

/\kli.ɲɔ.te\/ verb

The verdict

“clignoter” is uncommon French (frequency #67,379 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,379
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cligner des yeux fréquemment.

Corpus desk

Index FR-clignoter · clignoter · French

clignoter · rank #67,379 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,379
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cisalpine

Nearest frequency peer: cisalpine (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “clignoter”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “clignoter” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for clignoter
PropertyValue
Headwordclignoter
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\kli.ɲɔ.te\
Letters9
Frequency rank#67,379
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “clignoter” se place dans la fréquence du français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).clignoterse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « cisalpine » (#67,378), « climatologues » (#67,380), « ciller » (#67,377). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

clignoter is uncommon French at frequency #67,379 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \kli.ɲɔ.te\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for clignoter, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is clignoter, spelled C-L-I-G-N-O-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Cligner des yeux fréquemment.
  2. 2
    S’allumer et s’éteindre alternativement, en parlant d’une lumière.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La voix claquait. Le vieux clignota comme si on lui eût tiré des amorces aux oreilles.
  2. Il souleva la tête, et, clignotant, regarda autour de lui.

Synonyms

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 "clignoter"?
"clignoter" is spelled C-L-I-G-N-O-T-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \kli.ɲɔ.te\.
What does "clignoter" mean?
As a verb, "clignoter" means: Cligner des yeux fréquemment.
How do you pronounce "clignoter"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "clignoter" is \kli.ɲɔ.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "clignoter" come from?
"clignoter" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "clignoter", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

What to do next

You've looked up "clignoter". Here's where to go from here.

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list