cliquet

\kli.kɛ\

/\kli.kɛ\/ noun

The verdict

“cliquet” is uncommon French (frequency #58,501 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#58,501
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit levier dont on se sert pour empêcher qu’une roue à rochet qui tourne dans un sens puisse se mouvoir dans un sens contraire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cliquet · cliquet · French

cliquet · rank #58,501 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #58,501
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH citroen

Nearest frequency peer: citroen (-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 « cliquet »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cliquet
PropertyValue
Headwordcliquet
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kli.kɛ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#58,501
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cliquet » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cliquettombe 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: « citroen » (#58,500), « cléments » (#58,502), « Christel » (#58,499). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cliquet » est au #58,501. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cliquet is uncommon French at frequency #58,501 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kli.kɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Petit levier dont on se sert pour empêcher qu’une roue à rochet qui tourne dans un sens puisse se mouvoir dans un sens contraire.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for cliquet, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cliquet, spelled C-L-I-Q-U-E-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit levier dont on se sert pour empêcher qu’une roue à rochet qui tourne dans un sens puisse se mouvoir dans un sens contraire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les cliquets se lèvent quand leurs électros respectifs reçoivent le courant, c’est à dire quand les interrupteurs à tube de mercure des relais sont fermés.
  2. L’image usuelle est celle d’une roue dentée à dents asymétriques jointe à un cliquet interdisant l’un des sens de rotation.

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 "cliquet"?
"cliquet" is spelled C-L-I-Q-U-E-T. The IPA pronunciation is \kli.kɛ\.
What does "cliquet" mean?
As a noun, "cliquet" means: Petit levier dont on se sert pour empêcher qu’une roue à rochet qui tourne dans un sens puisse se mouvoir dans un sens contraire.
How do you pronounce "cliquet"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cliquet" is \kli.kɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cliquet" come from?
"cliquet" 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 "cliquet", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list