compulsion
\kɔ̃.pyl.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“compulsion” is uncommon French (frequency #71,372 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,372
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Désir ou besoin psychique irrésistible, considéré comme irrationnel, et qui pousse à agir afin de moins se sentir angoissé ou en détresse.
Corpus desk
Index FR-compulsion · compulsion · French
compulsion · rank #71,372 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,372
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH complement
Nearest frequency peer: complement (-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 « compulsion »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- complaît
complaît
28,631 corpus weight
- complement
complement
28,630 corpus weight
- compulsion
compulsion
28,629 corpus weight
- concitoyen
concitoyen
28,628 corpus weight
- confectionn…
confectionnée
28,627 corpus weight
- confectionn…
confectionnées
28,626 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « compulsion » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | compulsion |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.pyl.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #71,372 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « compulsion » en français
Rare enough to double-check
compulsion is uncommon French at frequency #71,372 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔ̃.pyl.sjɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for compulsion in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is compulsion, spelled C-O-M-P-U-L-S-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Désir ou besoin psychique irrésistible, considéré comme irrationnel, et qui pousse à agir afin de moins se sentir angoissé ou en détresse.
- 2Action de compulser des livres.
- 3Contrainte.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how compulsion appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La compulsion des minutiers notariaux nous apporte donc d'utiles renseignements sur la répartition géographique des terres libres, et permet de mesurer, même de façon très approximative, l'importance des survivances allodiales dans le Bordelais d'Ancien Régime.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "compulsion", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).