retenir son souffle
\ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃ sufl\
The verdict
“retenir son souffle” 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 souffle |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃ sufl\ |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “retenir son souffle” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for retenir son souffle is 19 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃ sufl\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
retenir son souffle has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 souffle, spelled R-E-T-E-N-I-R- -S-O-N- -S-O-U-F-F-L-E.
Definition
- 1S’arrêter temporairement et volontairement de respirer.
- 2Attendre sans rien dire tout en étant impatient, anxieux ou angoissé.
This word in other languages
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 souffle”
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- -S-O-U-F-F-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʁə.tə.niʁ sɔ̃ sufl\ (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.