-ique

/\ik\/ suffix

Letters

5 characters

Language

French

word origin

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

-ique is aFrenchsuffix. It means: Suffixe utilisé pour la constitution d’un adjectif à partir d’un nom et signifiant « relatif à cette chose, propre à cette chose ». Pronounced \ik\.

Key facts for -ique
PropertyValue
Headword-ique
LanguageFrench
Part of speechSuffix
IPA\ik\
Letters5
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

-ique is not present in the top-100,000 ranked French corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for -ique is 5 letters long, classified as asuffix, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ik\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for -ique in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.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 -ique, spelled --I-Q-U-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Suffixe utilisé pour la constitution d’un adjectif à partir d’un nom et signifiant « relatif à cette chose, propre à cette chose ».
  2. 2
    Suffixe utilisé pour décrire une molécule possédant un atome d’hydrogène mobile, lui conférant des propriétés acides (acide acétique, acide sulfurique, acide chlorhydrique...). Utilisé aussi pour les alcools (alcool éthylique, alcool propylique...), les anhydrides (anhydride carbonique…), les éthers (éther éthylique…) et autres, pour décrire des produits résultant de la transformation d’un acide.
  3. 3
    Suffixe utilisé pour la constitution d’un substantif, soit par substantivation de l’adjectif (→ voir botanique et politique) soit sur une base propre.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "-ique"?
"-ique" is spelled --I-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ik\.
What does "-ique" mean?
As a suffix, "-ique" means: Suffixe utilisé pour la constitution d’un adjectif à partir d’un nom et signifiant « relatif à cette chose, propre à cette chose ».
How do you pronounce "-ique"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "-ique" is \ik\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "-ique" come from?
"-ique" 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.

Nearby French words

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

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.