croque-mitaine
\kʁɔk.mi.tɛn\
The verdict
“croque-mitaine” 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) - Personnage imaginaire dont on se sert pour faire peur aux enfants.
Corpus desk
Index FR-croque-mitaine · croque-mitaine · French
croque-mitaine · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-7 7 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 | croque-mitaine |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kʁɔk.mi.tɛn\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « croque-mitaine » en français
Rare enough to double-check
croque-mitaine is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \kʁɔk.mi.tɛn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
croque-mitaine has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is croque-mitaine, spelled C-R-O-Q-U-E---M-I-T-A-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1Personnage imaginaire dont on se sert pour faire peur aux enfants.
- 2Vain épouvantail.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how croque-mitaine appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
C’est comme si, vraiment, en vrai aussi, il faisait peur comme ça ; hou, mais il vous regarde, tout simplement. Hou, quel croque-mitaine !
Plus loin, c’est el coco, croque-mitaine, qui vient effrayer les petits enfants et qui en effraierait bien d’autres, car, après l’ombre de Samuel dans le tableau de la Pythonisse d’Endor, par Salvator Rosa, nous ne connaissons rien de plus terrible que cet épouvantail.
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.