a contrario
\a kɔ̃.tʁa.ʁjo\
The verdict
“a contrario” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Variante, dans l'orthographe traditionnelle, de à contrario (orthographe rectifiée de 1990).
Corpus desk
Index FR-a-contrario · a contrario · French
a contrario · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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 | a contrario |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \a kɔ̃.tʁa.ʁjo\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « a contrario » en français
Rare enough to double-check
a contrario is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \a kɔ̃.tʁa.ʁjo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Variante, dans l'orthographe traditionnelle, de à contrario (orthographe rectifiée de 1990).".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for a contrario, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is a contrario, spelled A- -C-O-N-T-R-A-R-I-O.
Definition
- 1Variante, dans l'orthographe traditionnelle, de à contrario (orthographe rectifiée de 1990).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how a contrario appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Mais à y regarder de plus près, et dans le cadre du système institutionnel suisse, on s’aperçoit que cet article affirme a contrario un certain nombre de principes très forts qui sont loin d’aller de soi.
Les cure-dents de notre auberge en disaient autant sur le pays que l’entretien du réseau routier. A contrario, dans l’Ukraine socialiste des années 1980, les lampadaires cassés présageaient Tchernobyl.
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.