en passant
/ˌɒ̃ pæˈsɒ̃/
"en-passant" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“en passant” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of a capture, performed by a pawn on an enemy pawn that has just passed over its attack zone.
Corpus desk
Index EN-en-passant · en passant · English
en passant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | en passant |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌɒ̃ pæˈsɒ̃/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “en passant” in English
Rare enough to double-check
en passant is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌɒ̃ pæˈsɒ̃/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of a capture, performed by a pawn on an enemy pawn that has just passed over its attack zone.".
en passant has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: An unadapted borrowing from French en passant. The correct English form is en passant, spelled E-N- -P-A-S-S-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Of a capture, performed by a pawn on an enemy pawn that has just passed over its attack zone.
Etymology
An unadapted borrowing from French en passant.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.