The aim of the paper is to define the categorial status of a lexical hybrid in modern French and to classify hybrids according to various typological criteria. A lexical hybrid has been defined as a neological type arising mostly as a result of hybridization, thus a specific derivational process being a combination of derivation and direct borrowing, and depending on the addition of a foreign-language formative (lexeme, confix, affix) borrowed directly from language A either to the native base or to a foreign element borrowed directly from language B. The French language has borrowed some hybrids from foreign languages, in which these formations arose as a result of analogous hybridogenic processes. Hybrid formatives are characterized by a lack of autonomy in the borrowing language. The division of hybrids is presented as follows: 1) derivational hybrids and hybrid-borrowings; 2) interferential hybrids (created as a result of two languages affecting each other because of their geographical proximity) and non interferential hybrids; 3) nominative hybrids and authorial hybrids (the latter, as nonce-words, are created for the aims of poetry, satire and popular entertainment).