relâche
French, noun
relâche is a French masculine noun meaning “interruption” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of relâcher. With an accent, relâché is a different word: “loose”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Interruption d'un travail, d'une étude, d'un exercice”.
What does relâche mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineinterruption
- 2
masculinetime off, time out (a break)
- 3
Canadacolloquialmasculinespring break, March break (a break in the school term, for the winter-spring semester)
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
adjective
- 1
loose
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Distendu, ayant perdu son ressort, sa tenue. 2. Détendu, sans pression. 3. Relatif au relâchement des mœurs, des devoirs de la religion, de la conduite.
noun: 1. Interruption d'un travail, d'une étude, d'un exercice. 2. Repos, rémission, dans un état douloureux. 3. Suspension des représentations d’une pièce ou fermeture du théâtre pour quelque raison.
noun: 1. Lieu propre pour relâcher. 2. Action de relâcher.
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 relâche
- relâchée feminine
- relâchés masculine plural
- relâchées feminine plural
- relâches plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to relâche
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is relâche in French?
relâche appears 5.8 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).