contracture

\kɔ̃.tʁak.tyʁ\

/\kɔ̃.tʁak.tyʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“contracture” is uncommon French (frequency #62,165 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,165
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rétrécissement qui se fait dans la partie supérieure d’une colonne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-contracture · contracture · French

contracture · rank #62,165 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,165
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH consœur

Nearest frequency peer: consœur (-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 « contracture »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for contracture
PropertyValue
Headwordcontracture
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔ̃.tʁak.tyʁ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#62,165
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « contracture » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.contracturetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « consœur » (#62,164), « contrefait » (#62,166), « Constantinois » (#62,163). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « contracture » est au #62,165. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

contracture is uncommon French at frequency #62,165 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔ̃.tʁak.tyʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for contracture in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is contracture, spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T-U-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Rétrécissement qui se fait dans la partie supérieure d’une colonne.
  2. 2
    Rigidité plus ou moins considérable et prolongée des muscles.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. À noter que Jonathan se plaint d’une légère contracture à la cuisse, ce qui expliquerait en partie sa course moyenne.
  2. Un défaut d’occlusion de la mâchoire, un mauvais appui du pied sur le sol, des chocs et des traumatismes peuvent également déclencher des contractures et douleurs cervico-dorsales.

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 "contracture"?
"contracture" is spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T-U-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ̃.tʁak.tyʁ\.
What does "contracture" mean?
As a noun, "contracture" means: Rétrécissement qui se fait dans la partie supérieure d’une colonne.
How do you pronounce "contracture"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "contracture" is \kɔ̃.tʁak.tyʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "contracture" come from?
"contracture" 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 "contracture", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list