donner froid dans le dos
\dɔ.ne fʁwa dɑ̃ lə do\
The verdict
“donner froid dans le dos” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 24
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Inspirer la peur.
Corpus desk
Index FR-donner-froid-dans-le-dos · donner froid dans le dos · French
donner froid dans le dos · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 24 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" 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 | donner froid dans le dos |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \dɔ.ne fʁwa dɑ̃ lə do\ |
| Letters | 24 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « donner froid dans le dos » en français
Rare enough to double-check
donner froid dans le dos is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \dɔ.ne fʁwa dɑ̃ lə do\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Inspirer la peur.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for donner froid dans le dos, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is donner froid dans le dos, spelled D-O-N-N-E-R- -F-R-O-I-D- -D-A-N-S- -L-E- -D-O-S.
Definition
- 1Inspirer la peur.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how donner froid dans le dos appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Depuis quelques mois, les médias nous rapportent des histoires de violence, dans les écoles et aux abords de celles-ci, qui donnent froid dans le dos.
Il donne un peu froid dans le dos, et c’est précisément l’effet voulu. L’imposant lustre est entièrement composé d’os humains faits de verre noir, où l’on aperçoit crânes, vertèbres et mains squelettiques dont les majeurs sont dressés en doigt d’honneur avec provocation.
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.