litote
\li.tɔt\
The verdict
“litote” is uncommon French (frequency #77,669 among 2,567 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,669
- frequency rank, French
- 2,567
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Figure de style qui consiste en l'utilisation d'une négation suggérant plus en disant moins.
Corpus desk
Index FR-litote · litote · French
litote · rank #77,669 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,669
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,567
- PHOTO-FINISH limoger
Nearest frequency peer: limoger (-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 « litote »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- length
length
22,336 corpus weight
- limitons
limitons
22,334 corpus weight
- limoger
limoger
22,333 corpus weight
- litote
litote
22,332 corpus weight
- logarithmes
logarithmes
22,330 corpus weight
- Lommel
Lommel
22,329 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « litote » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | litote |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \li.tɔt\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #77,669 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « litote » en français
Rare enough to double-check
litote is uncommon French at frequency #77,669 among 2,567 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \li.tɔt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Figure de style qui consiste en l'utilisation d'une négation suggérant plus en disant moins.".
No misspelling variants are generated for litote in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is litote, spelled L-I-T-O-T-E.
Definition
- 1Figure de style qui consiste en l'utilisation d'une négation suggérant plus en disant moins.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how litote appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il y a un tour de Fiction, au moyen duquel la penſée ne doit pas être entendue littéralement comme elle eſt énoncée, mais qui laiſſe apercevoir le véritable point de vûe en le rendant ſeulement plus ſenſible & plus intéreſſant par la Fiction même. De là naissent l’Hyperbole, la Litote, l’Interrogation, la Dubitation, la Prétérition, la Réticence, l’Interr…
« — Va, je ne te hais point ! » est une litote souvent citée. Elle se trouve dans un vers célèbre prononcé par Chimène dans Le Cid de Corneille (1636). Chimène avoue à Rodrigue qu’elle l’aime encore, bien qu’il ait tué son père en duel, suite à l’affront de ce dernier.
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); 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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "litote", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).