quidam
French, noun/ki.dam/
quidam is spelled Q-U-I-D-A-M (6 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written French, the 37,217th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Quidam is a French masculine noun meaning “placeholder for persons whose name are unknown or not mentioned, in a conversation or in writing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “S’emploie dans les monitoires, procès-verbaux, informations, etc., pour désigner les personnes dont on ignore…”.
What does quidam mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineplaceholder for persons whose name are unknown or not mentioned, in a conversation or in writing
- 2
masculineindividual
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. S’emploie dans les monitoires, procès-verbaux, informations, etc., pour désigner les personnes dont on ignore ou dont on n’exprime pas le nom. 2. Personne dont l’identité n’est pas précisée, dans une conversation, un écrit. 3. Individu. 4. Personne quelconque, Monsieur Tout-le-monde.
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 quidam
- quidams plural
- quidane feminine
- quidame feminine
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce quidam?
- /ki.dam/
- \kɥi.dam\
- \ki.dam\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to quidam
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is quidam in French?
quidam appears about once in every 1 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).