retenir son haleine
\ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃.n‿a.lɛn\
The verdict
“retenir son haleine” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - S’arrêter temporairement et volontairement de respirer.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | retenir son haleine |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃.n‿a.lɛn\ |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “retenir son haleine” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for retenir son haleine is 19 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃.n‿a.lɛn\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "S’arrêter temporairement et volontairement de respirer.".
retenir son haleine has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is retenir son haleine, spelled R-E-T-E-N-I-R- -S-O-N- -H-A-L-E-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1S’arrêter temporairement et volontairement de respirer.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “retenir son haleine”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is R-E-T-E-N-I-R- -S-O-N- -H-A-L-E-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃.n‿a.lɛn\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.