spasme

\spasm\

/\spasm\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“spasme” is uncommon French (frequency #54,275 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,275
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Contraction involontaire, mouvement convulsif de certains muscles lisses ou striés.

Corpus desk

Index FR-spasme · spasme · French

spasme · rank #54,275 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,275
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sporadiquement

Nearest frequency peer: sporadiquement (+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 « spasme »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for spasme
PropertyValue
Headwordspasme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\spasm\
Letters6
Frequency rank#54,275
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « spasme » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).spasmetombe 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: « sporadiquement » (#54,276), « sourates » (#54,273), « Stains » (#54,277). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « spasme » est au #54,275. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

spasme is uncommon French at frequency #54,275 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \spasm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Contraction involontaire, mouvement convulsif de certains muscles lisses ou striés.".

spasme has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is spasme, spelled S-P-A-S-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Contraction involontaire, mouvement convulsif de certains muscles lisses ou striés.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. En lisant cette lettre, d’Artagnan sentait son cœur se dilater et s’étreindre de ce doux spasme qui torture et caresse le cœur des amants.
  2. Le spasme la raidit, la tint frémissante… Puis la tête retomba et je serrai le petit corps tout faible contre moi.

This word in other languages

spasm(English)espasmo(Español)Krampf(Deutsch)

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 "spasme"?
"spasme" is spelled S-P-A-S-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \spasm\.
What does "spasme" mean?
As a noun, "spasme" means: Contraction involontaire, mouvement convulsif de certains muscles lisses ou striés.
How do you pronounce "spasme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spasme" is \spasm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "spasme" come from?
"spasme" 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 "spasme", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Stains#54,277survis#54,286tapais#54,289scrubs#54,252

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list