côtoyaient
\ko.twa.jɛ\
The verdict
“côtoyaient” is uncommon French (frequency #71,416 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,416
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de côtoyer.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cotoyaient · côtoyaient · French
côtoyaient · rank #71,416 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,416
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH céréalières
Nearest frequency peer: céréalières (-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 « côtoyaient »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- cyrène
cyrène
28,589 corpus weight
- cystite
cystite
28,588 corpus weight
- Cèze
Cèze
28,587 corpus weight
- céréalières
céréalières
28,586 corpus weight
- côtoyaient
côtoyaient
28,585 corpus weight
- dall
dall
28,584 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « côtoyaient » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | côtoyaient |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ko.twa.jɛ\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #71,416 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « côtoyaient » en français
Rare enough to double-check
côtoyaient is uncommon French at frequency #71,416 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ko.twa.jɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de côtoyer.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for côtoyaient, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is côtoyaient, spelled C-Ô-T-O-Y-A-I-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de côtoyer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how côtoyaient appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Dans la bibliothèque se côtoyaient Henry James en Penguin, Le Prince des marées dédicacé par Pat Conroy, une biographie de Sylvia Plath, tous les romains d’Iris Murdoch.
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 "côtoyaient", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).