retenir sa respiration
\ʁə.tə.niʁ sa ʁɛs.pi.ʁa.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“retenir sa respiration” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - S’arrêter temporairement et volontairement de respirer.
Corpus desk
Index FR-retenir-sa-respiration · retenir sa respiration · French
retenir sa respiration · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 22 letters
- VOW-9 9 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" 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 | retenir sa respiration |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ʁə.tə.niʁ sa ʁɛs.pi.ʁa.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « retenir sa respiration » en français
Rare enough to double-check
retenir sa respiration is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \ʁə.tə.niʁ sa ʁɛs.pi.ʁa.sjɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for retenir sa respiration, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is retenir sa respiration, spelled R-E-T-E-N-I-R- -S-A- -R-E-S-P-I-R-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1S’arrêter temporairement et volontairement de respirer.
- 2Ne pas faire de bruit, être le plus silencieux possible.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how retenir sa respiration appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
En apnée, il faut retenir sa respiration, sinon on boit la tasse.
Tout le monde était suspendu à ses lèvres, retenait sa respiration.
Synonyms
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.