métathèse
French, noun/me.ta.tɛz/
métathèse is spelled M-É-T-A-T-H-È-S-E (9 letters) and appears about once in every 19 million words in written French, the 139,724th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Métathèse is a French feminine noun meaning “metathesis (the breaking and reforming of double bonds in olefins in which substituent groups are swapped)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Métaplasme qui consiste dans l’inversion de deux lettres ou phonèmes”.
What does métathèse mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininemetathesis (the breaking and reforming of double bonds in olefins in which substituent groups are swapped)
- 2
femininemetathesis
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Métaplasme qui consiste dans l’inversion de deux lettres ou phonèmes. 2. Réaction de double déplacement au cours de laquelle deux composés échangent leurs ions ou groupes.
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.
Forms of métathèse
- métathèses plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce métathèse?
- /me.ta.tɛz/
- \me.ta.tɛz\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to métathèse
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is métathèse in French?
métathèse appears about once in every 19 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).