séquestrer

\se.kɛs.tʁe\

/\se.kɛs.tʁe\/ verb

The verdict

“séquestrer” is uncommon French (frequency #59,673 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,673
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mettre quelque chose sous séquestre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sequestrer · séquestrer · French

séquestrer · rank #59,673 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,673
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sépia

Nearest frequency peer: sépia (-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 « séquestrer »

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 « séquestrer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for séquestrer
PropertyValue
Headwordséquestrer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\se.kɛs.tʁe\
Letters10
Frequency rank#59,673
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « séquestrer » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).séquestrertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « sépia » (#59,672), « séquestrés » (#59,674), « séduira » (#59,671). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « séquestrer » est au #59,673. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

séquestrer is uncommon French at frequency #59,673 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \se.kɛs.tʁe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for séquestrer, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

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 séquestrer, spelled S-É-Q-U-E-S-T-R-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mettre quelque chose sous séquestre.
  2. 2
    Tenir illégalement enfermée, en parlant d’une personne.
  3. 3
    Retenir un élément chimique, en parlant d’une molécule chimique ou organique.
  4. 4
    S’isoler, vivre à l’écart du monde.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le séquestre est la mise sous main de justice d'objets destinés à désintéresser les créanciers (voir décision du Conseil fédéral du 18. avril 1893, recours Stutz, Archives, II, 72) ; aussi peuvent seuls être séquestrés aux termes de l'art. 275 qui vise les art. 92 et 93 L.P. des objets saisissables.
  2. La loi punit ceux qui, sans ordre ni mandat de justice, ont arrêté, détenu ou séquestré des personnes quelconques.

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 "séquestrer"?
"séquestrer" is spelled S-É-Q-U-E-S-T-R-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \se.kɛs.tʁe\.
What does "séquestrer" mean?
As a verb, "séquestrer" means: Mettre quelque chose sous séquestre.
How do you pronounce "séquestrer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "séquestrer" is \se.kɛs.tʁe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "séquestrer" come from?
"séquestrer" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "séquestrer", 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