sardonique

\saʁ.dɔ.nik\

/\saʁ.dɔ.nik\/ adj

The verdict

“sardonique” is uncommon French (frequency #97,403 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#97,403
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui révèle une pensée, une intention méchante.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sardonique · sardonique · French

sardonique · rank #97,403 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #97,403
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sarrazins

Nearest frequency peer: sarrazins (+1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « sardonique »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « sardonique » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for sardonique
PropertyValue
Headwordsardonique
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\saʁ.dɔ.nik\
Letters10
Frequency rank#97,403
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « sardonique » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).sardoniquetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « sarrazins » (#97,404), « saisirent » (#97,401), « sassi » (#97,405). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sardonique » est au #97,403. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sardonique is uncommon French at frequency #97,403 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \saʁ.dɔ.nik\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui révèle une pensée, une intention méchante.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for sardonique in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is sardonique, spelled S-A-R-D-O-N-I-Q-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui révèle une pensée, une intention méchante.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how sardonique appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. En vous arrêtant au trait distinctif du visage, un nez plein de gibbosités, rouge et digne de figurer dans un plat de truffes, vous eussiez supposé un caractère facile, niais et débonnaire à cet honnête vieillard essentiellement gobemouche, et vous en eussiez été la dupe, comme tout le café David, où jamais personne n’avait examiné le front observateur, l…
  2. Un sourire sardonique crispa les lèvres du guide.

Synonyms

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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sardonique"?
"sardonique" is spelled S-A-R-D-O-N-I-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \saʁ.dɔ.nik\.
What does "sardonique" mean?
As an adjective, "sardonique" means: Qui révèle une pensée, une intention méchante.
How do you pronounce "sardonique"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sardonique" is \saʁ.dɔ.nik\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sardonique" come from?
"sardonique" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sardonique", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list