contre-attaque
\kɔ̃.tʁa.tak\
The verdict
“contre-attaque” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mouvement offensif opéré sur un champ de bataille par des troupes attaquées ; contre-offensive.
Corpus desk
Index FR-contre-attaque · contre-attaque · French
contre-attaque · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | contre-attaque |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.tʁa.tak\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « contre-attaque » en français
Rare enough to double-check
contre-attaque is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔ̃.tʁa.tak\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for contre-attaque, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is contre-attaque, spelled C-O-N-T-R-E---A-T-T-A-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Mouvement offensif opéré sur un champ de bataille par des troupes attaquées ; contre-offensive.
- 2Réplique ; riposte.
- 3Changement d’une situation de défense à une situation d’attaque, ou l’inverse.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how contre-attaque appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Chanzy comprit que sa contre-attaque ne réussirait pas; voulant cependant obéir aux ordres du général en chef, il essaya de passer à travers les bois de Bucy-Saint-Liphard, pour gagner de là Ormes et Orléans.
Face au nord et au nord-ouest, deux contre-attaques sont lancées l'après-midi sur les axes : Saint-Loup-en-Champagne, signal de Saint-Loup, Pargny ferme et ferme Vauboison, Vieux-lès-Asfeld. La première est exécutée par la 2ᵉ compagnie de chars du 23ᵉ bataillon, […].
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.