arrêter
French, verb/a.ʁɛ.te/
arrêter is a French verb meaning “to stop, to come to a standstill; to halt, to stop from moving” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Empêcher quelqu’un ou quelque chose de continuer son déplacement”.
What does arrêter mean in English?
verb
- 1
to stop, to come to a standstill; to halt, to stop from moving
- 2
to arrest (someone, a criminal, etc.)
- 3
to stop, to cease (an activity)
- 4
to come to a stop
- 5
archaicto settle; to conclude; to agree (upon)
- 6
to wait
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Empêcher quelqu’un ou quelque chose de continuer son déplacement. 2. Cesser, ne plus faire quelque chose. 3. Débusquer le gibier. 4. Prendre un demi-temps d’arrêt.
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 arrêter
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- arrêtant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- arrêté participle past
- arrête first-person indicative present
- arrêtes indicative present second-person
- arrêtons first-person indicative plural
- arrêtez indicative plural present
- arrêtent indicative plural present
- arrêtais first-person imperfect indicative
- arrêtait imperfect indicative singular
- arrêtions first-person imperfect indicative
- arrêtiez imperfect indicative plural
- arrêtaient imperfect indicative plural
- arrêtai first-person historic indicative
- arrêtas historic indicative past
- arrêta historic indicative past
- arrêtâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce arrêter?
- /a.ʁɛ.te/
- /a.ʁe.te/
- Quebec /a.ʁɛː.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 arrêter
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is arrêter in French?
arrêter appears 112 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).