fossilisé

\fɔ.si.li.ze\

/\fɔ.si.li.ze\/ adj

The verdict

“fossilisé” is uncommon French (frequency #83,890 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#83,890
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui a subi une fossilisation.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fossilise · fossilisé · French

fossilisé · rank #83,890 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #83,890
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH forçais

Nearest frequency peer: forçais (-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 « fossilisé »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « fossilisé » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for fossilisé
PropertyValue
Headwordfossilisé
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\fɔ.si.li.ze\
Letters9
Frequency rank#83,890
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « fossilisé » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.fossilisétombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « forçais » (#83,889), « Fourmies » (#83,891), « formal » (#83,888). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fossilisé » est au #83,890. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fossilisé is uncommon French at frequency #83,890 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \fɔ.si.li.ze\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for fossilisé, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is fossilisé, spelled F-O-S-S-I-L-I-S-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui a subi une fossilisation.
  2. 2
    Qui a vieilli moralement, figé dans ses habitudes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how fossilisé appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. On a pu suivre d'une façon précise l'histoire post-glaciaire dans le Nord de l'Europe, où de nombreux végétaux à demi fossilisés des tourbières ont permis de suivre couche par couche l'évolution des végétaux principaux.
  2. Mais, quoique les dames en question, vieilles filles hystériques et fossilisées, prudes et bigotes, considérassent leur illustre parent comme un démon lâché sur la terre, les liens du sang furent plus forts que la mauvaise opinion qu’elles avaient de lui, et elles soulagèrent discrètement sa pauvreté.

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

How do you spell "fossilisé"?
"fossilisé" is spelled F-O-S-S-I-L-I-S-É. The IPA pronunciation is \fɔ.si.li.ze\.
What does "fossilisé" mean?
As an adjective, "fossilisé" means: Qui a subi une fossilisation.
How do you pronounce "fossilisé"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fossilisé" is \fɔ.si.li.ze\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fossilisé" come from?
"fossilisé" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fossilisé", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list