hocus-pocus
The verdict
“hocus-pocus” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Incantation prononcée par les magiciens avant un tour.
Corpus desk
Index FR-hocus-pocus · hocus-pocus · French
hocus-pocus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" 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 | hocus-pocus |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « hocus-pocus » en français
Rare enough to double-check
hocus-pocus is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Incantation prononcée par les magiciens avant un tour.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for hocus-pocus, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is hocus-pocus, spelled H-O-C-U-S---P-O-C-U-S.
Definition
- 1Incantation prononcée par les magiciens avant un tour.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how hocus-pocus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
On suppose par exemple que la formule magique enfantine « hocus pocus pilatus pas » est un mélange étrange des mots de la consécration.
Synonyms
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.