quêter

\ke.te\

/\ke.te\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“quêter” is uncommon French (frequency #80,565 among 352 “Q” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#80,565
frequency rank, French
352
“Q” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Demander et recueillir des aumônes.

Corpus desk

Index FR-queter · quêter · French

quêter · rank #80,565 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #80,565
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 352
  • PHOTO-FINISH raccompagné

Nearest frequency peer: raccompagné (+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 « quêter »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « quêter » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for quêter
PropertyValue
Headwordquêter
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ke.te\
Letters6
Frequency rank#80,565
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « quêter » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.quêtertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « raccompagné » (#80,566), « Quiévrain » (#80,563), « rachètera » (#80,567). Parmi 352 lemmes en « Q », « quêter » est au #80,565. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

quêter is uncommon French at frequency #80,565 among 352 “Q” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ke.te\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for quêter, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is quêter, spelled Q-U-Ê-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Demander et recueillir des aumônes.
  2. 2
    Chercher du gibier en parlant d’un chien.
  3. 3
    Rechercher.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how quêter appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Des mendiants quêtaient, d’une main tremblante.
  2. J’annonçai gravement que j’allais quêter à l’église chaque dimanche pour y faire mettre un Christ. On me rit au nez, en me conseillant d’entreprendre plutôt une quête pour les missions en Chine. Mais les missions de Chine ne m’intéressaient pas.

This word in other languages

sammeln(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "quêter"?
"quêter" is spelled Q-U-Ê-T-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ke.te\.
What does "quêter" mean?
As a verb, "quêter" means: Demander et recueillir des aumônes.
How do you pronounce "quêter"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "quêter" is \ke.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "quêter" come from?
"quêter" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "quêter", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

quanta#80,559Ramadi#80,571randon#80,574reagir#80,579

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list