seppuku
\se.pu.ku\
The verdict
“seppuku” is uncommon French (frequency #78,847 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,847
- frequency rank, French
- 6,032
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Hara-kiri. Suicide rituel japonais consistant à s’ouvrir l’abdomen avec un tantō (le sabre japonais le plus court).
Corpus desk
Index FR-seppuku · seppuku · French
seppuku · rank #78,847 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #78,847
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,032
- PHOTO-FINISH seri
Nearest frequency peer: seri (+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 « seppuku »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- satisferait
satisferait
21,159 corpus weight
- seppuku
seppuku
21,154 corpus weight
- seri
seri
21,153 corpus weight
- seti
seti
21,152 corpus weight
- shampooings
shampooings
21,151 corpus weight
- shiatsu
shiatsu
21,150 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « seppuku » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | seppuku |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \se.pu.ku\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #78,847 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « seppuku » en français
Rare enough to double-check
seppuku is uncommon French at frequency #78,847 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \se.pu.ku\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
seppuku has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is seppuku, spelled S-E-P-P-U-K-U.
Definition
- 1Hara-kiri. Suicide rituel japonais consistant à s’ouvrir l’abdomen avec un tantō (le sabre japonais le plus court).
- 2Suicide attenté afin de se repentir de ses péchés.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how seppuku appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Traditionnellement, le seppuku a lieu dans un temple en s’ouvrant l’abdomen.
L’hôtel du Mont Rose est donc rose, grande bâtisse trapue au cœur de Zermatt, dont les chambres nobles ont un balcon qui s’ouvre théâtralement sur la haute pyramide tourmentée du Cervin, roide jet de pierre qui semble vouloir éventrer le ciel, mais dévie de sa ligne et se tord en son dernier tiers, comme si, à l’instar du seppuku japonais dans sa phase ul…
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "seppuku", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).