écarteler
\e.kaʁ.tə.le\
The verdict
“écarteler” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Démembrer un condamné en le tirant par les quatre membres, à quatre chevaux.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ecarteler · écarteler · French
écarteler · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "É" 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 | écarteler |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \e.kaʁ.tə.le\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « écarteler » en français
Rare enough to double-check
écarteler is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \e.kaʁ.tə.le\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for écarteler, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is écarteler, spelled É-C-A-R-T-E-L-E-R.
Definition
- 1Démembrer un condamné en le tirant par les quatre membres, à quatre chevaux.
- 2Partager l’écu en quatre.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how écarteler appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Puis les chevaux entrèrent en action. Chacun était tourné vers un des quatre points cardinaux. Le supplicié lié à ces animaux par les bras et par les jambes, était de si forte corpulence, qu’on passa plus d’une heure à fouetter lès chevaux sans parvenir à l’écarteler. Pendant tout ce temps Damiens hurlait. On fit venir encore d’autres chevaux, mais en vai…
Lady Rowena, répondit Athelsthane avec la plus grande fermeté, est ma fiancée, et je me laisserais écarteler par des chevaux sauvages avant de consentir à me séparer d’elle.
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.