picoter
French, verb/pi.kɔ.te/
picoter is spelled P-I-C-O-T-E-R (7 letters) and appears about once in every 21 million words in written French, the 149,203rd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Picoter is a French verb meaning “to peck” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Piquer légèrement, de façon répétée”.
What does picoter mean in English?
verb
- 1
to peck
- 2
informalto bug, to pester, to annoy
- 3
to itch, to prickle
- 4
to tingle
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Piquer légèrement, de façon répétée. 2. Faire aux fruits des petites piqûres, en les becquetant, en parlant des oiseaux. 3. Faire sentir légèrement l’éperon à un cheval, à diverses reprises. 4. Attaquer souvent quelqu’un par des paroles dites avec malignité ; chercher à le fâcher, à l’irriter.
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 picoter
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- picotant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- picoté participle past
- picote first-person indicative present
- picotes indicative present second-person
- picotons first-person indicative plural
- picotez indicative plural present
- picotent indicative plural present
- picotais first-person imperfect indicative
- picotait imperfect indicative singular
- picotions first-person imperfect indicative
- picotiez imperfect indicative plural
- picotaient imperfect indicative plural
- picotai first-person historic indicative
- picotas historic indicative past
- picota historic indicative past
- picotâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce picoter?
- /pi.kɔ.te/
- \pi.kɔ.te\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to picoter
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is picoter in French?
picoter appears about once in every 21 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).