rictus

Learned borrowing from Latin rictus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪk.təs/, /ˈɹɪk.tʊs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪktəs

rictus (plural rictus or rictuses)

1. A bird’s gaping mouth.
2. The throat of a calyx.
3. Any open-mouthed expression.

   His face was a rictus of sheer delight.

   • 1899, Victor Hugo, translated by Paul Maurice, The Memoirs of Victor Hugo:

     Amid a thick, bristling beard, a nose like an owl's beak and a mouth whose corners were drawn by a wild-beast-like rictus were just discernible.

   • 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

     A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces.

   • 1986, “Deaf Forever”, performed by Motörhead:

     Sword and shield, bone and steel / Rictus grin / Deaf forever to the battle's din

   • 1990, “Nothingface”, performed by Voivod:

     Valves plugs pumps to erase/ rictus from my face.

   • 1993, Wolfenstein 3D, scene: after defeating Hitler (episode 3), level/area: 9:

     The absolute incarnation of evil, Adolf Hitler, lies at your feet in a pool of his own blood. His wrinkled, crimson-splattered visage still strains, a jagged-toothed rictus trying to cry out. Insane even in death. Your lips pinched in bitter victory, you kick his head off his remains and spit on his corpse.

   • 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 56:

     It squinted at her through the hated light, its brow a rictus of pain and fear.

   • 2008, Sean Williams, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, page 81:

     The apprentice watched his Master, pain twisting his features into a rictus.

• rictal

• Citrus, Curtis, Turcis, citrus, rustic

Learned borrowing from Latin rictus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈrik.tus]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

rictus m (invariable)

1. rictus

• “rictus”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “rictus”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “rictus” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “rictus”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Learned borrowing from Latin rictus.

• IPA^(key): /ʁik.tys/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

rictus m (invariable)

1. rictus; grimace

• “rictus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From ringor (“to gape, show one's teeth, snarl; to be vexed”) + -tus (action noun forming suffix).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈrɪk.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈrik.tus]

rictus m (genitive rictūs); fourth declension

1. the gaping of a mouth, as when laughing or yawning; (of animals) gaping jaws

   Synonym: hiātus

   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Metamorphoses 11.59–60:

     […] in lapidem rictus serpentis apertos
     congelat et patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus.

     […] he hardens the snake's gaping jaws into stone and freezes its mouth, wide open, as it was.

Fourth-declension noun.

• → English: rictus
• → French: rictus
• → Portuguese: ricto
• → Spanish: rictus

rictus (feminine ricta, neuter rictum); first/second-declension participle

1. perfect participle of ringor

First/second-declension adjective.

• “rictus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “rictus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "rictus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

• citrus

Borrowed from French rictus, borrowed from Latin rictus.

rictus n (plural rictusuri)

1. rictus

Learned borrowing from Latin rictus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈriɡtus/ [ˈriɣ̞.t̪us]
• Rhymes: -iɡtus
• Syllabification: ric‧tus

rictus m (plural rictus)

1. sneer; wince

• “rictus”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025