rictus

/\ʁik.tys\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#44,692

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

rictus is aFrenchnoun. It means: Contraction de la bouche, grimace des lèvres et des joues. Pronounced \ʁik.tys\. Often confused with rites and reçus.

Key facts for rictus
PropertyValue
Headwordrictus
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʁik.tys\
Letters6
Frequency rank#44,692
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of rictus in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for rictus is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁik.tys\. Corpus data places it at rank #44,692 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Contraction de la bouche, grimace des lèvres et des joues.".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for rictus, with forms such as "irctus", "rcitus", and "ricctus". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "rites", "reçus", "riches", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is rictus, spelled R-I-C-T-U-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Contraction de la bouche, grimace des lèvres et des joues.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: irctus,rcitus,ricctus,rictsu,ricttus,rictuss,ricuts,ritcus,rrictus

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for rictus

Misspelling Variants of "rictus"

irctus6rcitus6ricctus7rictsu6ricttus7rictuss7ricuts6ritcus6
Misspelling Variants of "rictus"

Frequency rank: #44,692 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "rictus"?
"rictus" is spelled R-I-C-T-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁik.tys\.
What does "rictus" mean?
As a noun, "rictus" means: Contraction de la bouche, grimace des lèvres et des joues.
What words are commonly confused with "rictus"?
"rictus" is commonly confused with "rites", "reçus", "riches". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "rictus"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rictus" is \ʁik.tys\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rictus" come from?
"rictus" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.