phatique
French, adjective\fa.tik\
phatique is spelled P-H-A-T-I-Q-U-E (8 letters) and appears about once in every 39 million words in written French, the 198,467th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Phatique is a French adjective meaning “phatic (of speech serving social purposes rather than transmitting information)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Dont le but est d’établir, de vérifier ou de maintenir la communication entre l’émetteur et le récepteur”.
What does phatique mean in English?
adjective
- 1
phatic (of speech serving social purposes rather than transmitting information)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Dont le but est d’établir, de vérifier ou de maintenir la communication entre l’émetteur et le récepteur.
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 phatique
- phatiques plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce phatique?
- \fa.tik\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to phatique
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is phatique in French?
phatique appears about once in every 39 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).