clinquant

\klɛ̃.kɑ̃\

/\klɛ̃.kɑ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“clinquant” is uncommon French (frequency #54,480 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,480
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qualifie ce qui se donne à voir comme artificiellement brillant ou prétentieux.

Corpus desk

Index FR-clinquant · clinquant · French

clinquant · rank #54,480 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,480
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cloisonnement

Nearest frequency peer: cloisonnement (+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 « clinquant »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for clinquant
PropertyValue
Headwordclinquant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\klɛ̃.kɑ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#54,480
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « clinquant » en français

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « cloisonnement » (#54,481), « classifier » (#54,478), « circo » (#54,477). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « clinquant » est au #54,480. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

clinquant is uncommon French at frequency #54,480 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \klɛ̃.kɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qualifie ce qui se donne à voir comme artificiellement brillant ou prétentieux.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for clinquant, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is clinquant, spelled C-L-I-N-Q-U-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qualifie ce qui se donne à voir comme artificiellement brillant ou prétentieux.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le « Virtuosa » est un vaisseau clinquant, joyeux, coloré, kitch, digne représentant assumé du gigantisme et de tous les superlatifs, devant lequel il est difficile de rester impassible.
  2. Par son travail sur les costumes, Sophie Desmarais a mis en évidence les contrastes entre MTS [Marie-Stella, ainsi surnommée par ses camarades de classe] et Marie-Clown. Cheveux gaufrés, vêtements amples couleur saumon et bas de nylon donnent à la première une allure de gamine venue tout droit des années 80. À l’opposé, la seconde est clairement de son te…

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 "clinquant"?
"clinquant" is spelled C-L-I-N-Q-U-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \klɛ̃.kɑ̃\.
What does "clinquant" mean?
As an adjective, "clinquant" means: Qualifie ce qui se donne à voir comme artificiellement brillant ou prétentieux.
How do you pronounce "clinquant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "clinquant" is \klɛ̃.kɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "clinquant" come from?
"clinquant" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "clinquant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list