mot d’esprit
\mo d‿ɛs.pʁi\
The verdict
“mot d’esprit” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Réplique fine et subtile, pas toujours bien intentionnée.
Corpus desk
Index FR-mot-d-esprit · mot d’esprit · French
mot d’esprit · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" 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 | mot d’esprit |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mo d‿ɛs.pʁi\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « mot d’esprit » en français
Rare enough to double-check
mot d’esprit is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \mo d‿ɛs.pʁi\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Réplique fine et subtile, pas toujours bien intentionnée.".
Zero misspellings are on record for mot d’esprit in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is mot d’esprit, spelled M-O-T- -D-’-E-S-P-R-I-T.
Definition
- 1Réplique fine et subtile, pas toujours bien intentionnée.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mot d’esprit appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les techniques du mot d’esprit sont les mêmes que les techniques du rêve. La concision spécifique du mot d’esprit n’apparaît plus, dès lors, comme une conséquence de la tendance à l’économie, mais, au-delà, comme le résultat d’une élaboration inconsciente.
Et elle se trouvait trop loin pour entendre les bons mots d’esprit du maréchal de Bellefonds.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.