souhaiter
French, verb/swɛ.te/
souhaiter is spelled S-O-U-H-A-I-T-E-R (9 letters) and appears 10 times per million words in written French, the 6,701st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Souhaiter is a French verb meaning “to wish (for); to hope (for)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Former un souhait”.
What does souhaiter mean in English?
verb
- 1
to wish (for); to hope (for)
- 2
to wish someone well, particularly in a complimentary or polite way
- 3
datedrareto desire someone's presence
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Former un souhait. 2. Suivi d'un infinitif, ce verbe s'emploie sans préposition ou avec la préposition de (Littré). 3. Faire des vœux pour quelqu’un, dans une formule de compliments ou de politesse. 4. Désirer la présence de quelqu'un.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of souhaiter
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- souhaitant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- souhaité participle past
- souhaite first-person indicative present
- souhaites indicative present second-person
- souhaitons first-person indicative plural
- souhaitez indicative plural present
- souhaitent indicative plural present
- souhaitais first-person imperfect indicative
- souhaitait imperfect indicative singular
- souhaitions first-person imperfect indicative
- souhaitiez imperfect indicative plural
- souhaitaient imperfect indicative plural
- souhaitai first-person historic indicative
- souhaitas historic indicative past
- souhaita historic indicative past
- souhaitâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce souhaiter?
- /swɛ.te/
- /swe.te/
- archaic /su.ɛ.te/
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to souhaiter
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is souhaiter in French?
souhaiter appears 10 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).