kermès
French, noun/kɛʁ.mɛs/
kermès is spelled K-E-R-M-È-S (6 letters) and appears about once in every 14 million words in written French, the 122,418th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Kermès is a French masculine noun meaning “kermes oak” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Espèce de cochenille hôte parasite du chêne kermès et qui donne un colorant d'une belle teinture écarlate”.
What does kermès mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinekermes oak
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Espèce de cochenille hôte parasite du chêne kermès et qui donne un colorant d'une belle teinture écarlate. 2. Colorant qui provient de cet insecte. 3. Kermès minéral. Préparation rouge d’oxysulfure d’antimoine hydraté, qui était souvent employée en médecine comme expectorante, et qu’on nommait familièrement poudre des chartreux. 4. Chêne kermès.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce kermès?
- /kɛʁ.mɛs/
- \kɛʁ.mɛs\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is kermès in French?
kermès appears about once in every 14 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).