à contrecœur
\a kɔ̃.tʁə.kœʁ\
The verdict
“à contrecœur” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - À regret ; avec répugnance ; malgré soi.
Corpus desk
Index FR-a-contrec-ur · à contrecœur · French
à contrecœur · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "À" 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 | à contrecœur |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \a kɔ̃.tʁə.kœʁ\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « à contrecœur » en français
Rare enough to double-check
à contrecœur is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \a kɔ̃.tʁə.kœʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "À regret ; avec répugnance ; malgré soi.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for à contrecœur, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is à contrecœur, spelled À- -C-O-N-T-R-E-C-Œ-U-R.
Definition
- 1À regret ; avec répugnance ; malgré soi.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how à contrecœur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Si un policier seul recueille un témoignage, il sera toujours possible au suspect qui a parlé à contrecœur de nier ses aveux par la suite. Deux affirmations ont plus de poids qu’une seule devant un jury
Sur la steppe rouge du Planalto central, où les arbres ne poussent qu’à contrecœur, Brasilia est une ville retranchée, une capitale solitaire, loin, très loin, du Brésil utile, du pays réel. Bâtie par des disciples de Le Corbusier, elle a été soumise à la rigueur, à la raideur calvinistes du vieux maître, […].
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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.