"cauchemar" meaning in English

See cauchemar in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: cauchemars [plural]
Etymology: From French cauchemar. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|fr|cauchemar}} French cauchemar Head templates: {{en-noun}} cauchemar (plural cauchemars)
  1. (folklore) A demon or witch in French folklore that drains a sleeping person's energy by night.

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "cauchemar"
      },
      "expansion": "French cauchemar",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From French cauchemar.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cauchemars",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "cauchemar (plural cauchemars)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 2 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Folklore",
          "orig": "en:Folklore",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A demon or witch in French folklore that drains a sleeping person's energy by night."
      ],
      "id": "en-cauchemar-en-noun-eBQsHE8A",
      "links": [
        [
          "folklore",
          "folklore"
        ],
        [
          "demon",
          "demon"
        ],
        [
          "witch",
          "witch"
        ],
        [
          "French",
          "French"
        ],
        [
          "drain",
          "drain"
        ],
        [
          "energy",
          "energy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(folklore) A demon or witch in French folklore that drains a sleeping person's energy by night."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "arts",
        "folklore",
        "history",
        "human-sciences",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cauchemar"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "cauchemar"
      },
      "expansion": "French cauchemar",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From French cauchemar.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cauchemars",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "cauchemar (plural cauchemars)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms borrowed from French",
        "English terms derived from French",
        "Pages with 2 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Folklore"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A demon or witch in French folklore that drains a sleeping person's energy by night."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "folklore",
          "folklore"
        ],
        [
          "demon",
          "demon"
        ],
        [
          "witch",
          "witch"
        ],
        [
          "French",
          "French"
        ],
        [
          "drain",
          "drain"
        ],
        [
          "energy",
          "energy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(folklore) A demon or witch in French folklore that drains a sleeping person's energy by night."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "arts",
        "folklore",
        "history",
        "human-sciences",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cauchemar"
}

Download raw JSONL data for cauchemar meaning in English (1.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 59dc20b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.