damnatio memoriae

/\dam.na.sjo me.mo.ʁje\/ noun

The verdict

“damnatio memoriae” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
17
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Condamnation post mortem d'une personne, aboutissant à l'effacement de toutes traces de son existence.

Key facts for damnatio memoriae
PropertyValue
Headworddamnatio memoriae
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dam.na.sjo me.mo.ʁje\
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “damnatio memoriae” sits in French frequency

damnatio memoriae falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for damnatio memoriae is 17 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \dam.na.sjo me.mo.ʁje\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Condamnation post mortem d'une personne, aboutissant à l'effacement de toutes traces de son existence.".

No misspelling variants are generated for damnatio memoriae in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is damnatio memoriae, spelled D-A-M-N-A-T-I-O- -M-E-M-O-R-I-A-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Condamnation post mortem d'une personne, aboutissant à l'effacement de toutes traces de son existence.

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “damnatio memoriae, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/damnatio-memoriae

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "damnatio memoriae"?
"damnatio memoriae" is spelled D-A-M-N-A-T-I-O- -M-E-M-O-R-I-A-E. The IPA pronunciation is \dam.na.sjo me.mo.ʁje\.
What does "damnatio memoriae" mean?
As a noun, "damnatio memoriae" means: Condamnation post mortem d'une personne, aboutissant à l'effacement de toutes traces de son existence.
How do you pronounce "damnatio memoriae"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "damnatio memoriae" is \dam.na.sjo me.mo.ʁje\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "damnatio memoriae" come from?
"damnatio memoriae" 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.

Using “damnatio memoriae”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is D-A-M-N-A-T-I-O- -M-E-M-O-R-I-A-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \dam.na.sjo me.mo.ʁje\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter D in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list