What does French mean?

Definitions for French
frɛntʃfrench

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word French.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. Frenchnoun

    the Romance language spoken in France and in countries colonized by France

  2. French, French peoplenoun

    the people of France

  3. French, Daniel Chester Frenchadjective

    United States sculptor who created the seated marble figure of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. (1850-1931)

  4. French, Gallicverb

    of or pertaining to France or the people of France

    "French cooking"; "a Gallic shrug"

  5. Frenchverb

    cut (e.g, beans) lengthwise in preparation for cooking

    "French the potatoes"

Wiktionary

  1. Frenchnoun

    People of France, collectively.

    The French and the English have often been at war.

  2. Frenchnoun

    Vulgar language.

    Pardon my French.

  3. Frenchverb

    To kiss (another person) while inserting one's tongue into the other person's mouth.

  4. Frenchverb

    To kiss in this manner.

  5. Frenchadjective

    Of or relating to France.

    the French border with Italy

  6. Frenchadjective

    Of or relating to the people or culture of France.

    French customs

  7. Frenchadjective

    Of or relating to the French language.

    French verbs

  8. Frenchnoun

    A Romance language spoken primarily in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, Valle d'Aosta and many former French colonies.

  9. frenchverb

    To prepare food by cutting it into strips.

  10. Etymology: From Frenche, Frensch, Frensc, Frenkisch, Franche, from frencisc, equivalent to. Cognate with Français, Frans, französisch, fransk, fransk, fransysk, franska.

ChatGPT

  1. French

    French typically refers to the language spoken primarily in France, as well as in parts of Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, and several other countries. It is a Romance language descended from Latin, and is considered one of the major global languages. French is also associated with French culture, history, and cuisine, and is widely studied as a second language around the world.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Frenchadjective

    of or pertaining to France or its inhabitants

  2. Frenchnoun

    the language spoken in France

  3. Frenchnoun

    collectively, the people of France

  4. Etymology: [AS. frencisc, LL. franciscus, from L. Francus a Frank: cf. OF. franceis, franchois, franois, F. franais. See Frank, a., and cf. Frankish.]

Wikidata

  1. French

    French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick in Canada also in Haiti, the Acadiana region of the U.S. state of Louisiana, the northern parts of the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in the New England region, and by various communities elsewhere. Other speakers of French, who often speak it as a second language, are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of whom reside in Francophone Africa. In Africa, French is most commonly spoken in Gabon, Mauritius, Algeria, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire. French is estimated as having 110 million native speakers and 190 million more second language speakers. French is an Italic language descended from the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Lombard, Catalan, Sicilian and Sardinian. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in Belgium, which French has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. French

    frensh, adj. belonging to France or its people.—n. the people or language of France.—ns. French′-bean, the common kidney bean, eaten, pods and all, as a table vegetable; French′-berr′y, a small berry, the fruit of certain species of buckthorn, used in dyeing yellow; French′-chalk, an indurated clay, extremely dense, and of a smooth glossy surface and white colour; French′ery, French fashions collectively; French′-horn, a musical wind-instrument somewhat resembling a bugle; Frenchificā′tion.—v.t. French′ify, to make French or Frenchlike: to infect with the manner of the French.—ns. French′iness; French′man, a native or naturalised inhabitant of France:—fem. French′woman; French′-pol′ish, a varnish for furniture, consisting chiefly of shellac dissolved in some spirit; French′-pol′isher; French′-pol′ishing, the method of coating furniture with French-polish.—adj. French′y, with an exaggerated French manner.—French merino, a fine twilled cloth of merino wool; French pox (obs.), syphilis; French roof, a modified mansard-roof—really American; French white, finely pulverised talc; French window, a long window opening like a folding-door, and serving for exit and entrance.—Take French leave, to depart without notice or permission, to disappear suspiciously.

Editors Contribution

  1. french

    French is a language spoken by the people of France

    "I speak French very fluently."


    Submitted by MineChristopher on November 10, 2016  

Suggested Resources

  1. french

    Song lyrics by french -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by french on the Lyrics.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. FRENCH

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, French is ranked #525 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The French surname appeared 63,991 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 22 would have the surname French.

    85.7% or 54,872 total occurrences were White.
    8.1% or 5,183 total occurrences were Black.
    2.4% or 1,568 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.9% or 1,229 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    1.1% or 710 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
    0.6% or 422 total occurrences were Asian.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'French' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #711

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'French' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1659

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'French' in Nouns Frequency: #1251

  4. Adjectives Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'French' in Adjectives Frequency: #82

How to pronounce French?

How to say French in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of French in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of French in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of French in a Sentence

  1. An Uber spokesman:

    The legislation is designed to protect incumbent taxi operators from new digital services such as Uber, which is contrary to EU law, this news would seem to show that the French government now agrees.

  2. Francois Villeroy de Galhau:

    Let me give you a pretty impressive figure this morning - we’ll publish the full set of our forecasts on Dec. 20 - the 2021 French growth will stand at 6.7% in our forecasts, that figure is much higher than what was expected during the first half of the year and the highest growth figure in more than 50 years.

  3. Jurriaan Kien:

    We have a Plan B because we are chess players and always anticipate the next move, if for some reason we arrive in Moscow and we can't leave, we will be hosted at the French embassy's residence in Moscow. They have already prepared 14 beds.

  4. Jalel Harchaoui:

    Beyond France's prestige and commercial opportunities, an effective French diplomacy must ask what levers it can use vis-à-vis recalcitrant actors, it seems this basic question is no longer being asked in Paris.

  5. Didier Billion:

    Affirming oneself on the international scene when there is something so important at stake for the region and international relations is inappropriate, I don't think it will happen again. I think there is an effort by the French to try and make themselves look a little better with the Iranians. We will be less narrow-minded.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

French#1#993#10000

Translations for French

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for French »

Translation

Find a translation for the French definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"French." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/French>.

Discuss these French definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for French? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    a decorative musical accompaniment (often improvised) added above a basic melody
    A aberrate
    B descant
    C abet
    D lucubrate

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for French: