clinquant
French, verb/klɛ̃.kɑ̃/
clinquant is spelled C-L-I-N-Q-U-A-N-T (9 letters) and appears about once in every 3 million words in written French, the 54,486th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Clinquant is a French verb meaning “present participle of clinquer” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
What does clinquant mean in English?
verb
- 1
present participle of clinquer
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Qualifie ce qui se donne à voir comme artificiellement brillant ou prétentieux.
noun: 1. Petite lame de métal, généralement doré ou argenté, qui brille et dont on rehausse les broderies, dentelles, galons. 2. Lame de métal dont on se sert pour rendre de l'épaisseur à une partie usée de mécanisme. 3. Agréments recherchés, prétentieux et trop brillants. 4. Fine couche métallique que l'on dispose sous les pierres utilisées en bijouterie pour leur donner plus de brillant ou en modifier la couleur.
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 clinquant
- clinquants plural masculine
- clinquante singular feminine
- clinquantes plural feminine
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce clinquant?
- /klɛ̃.kɑ̃/
- \klɛ̃.kɑ̃\
- [klɛ̃.kɑ̃]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to clinquant
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is clinquant in French?
clinquant appears about once in every 3 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).