à dire vrai
\a diʁ vʁɛ\
The verdict
“à dire vrai” 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 de à vrai dire.
Corpus desk
Index FR-a-dire-vrai · à dire vrai · French
à dire vrai · 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 "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 dire vrai |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \a diʁ vʁɛ\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « à dire vrai » en français
Rare enough to double-check
à dire vrai is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \a diʁ vʁɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Variante de à vrai dire.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for à dire vrai, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No borrowing history is documented 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 à dire vrai, spelled À- -D-I-R-E- -V-R-A-I.
Definition
- 1Variante de à vrai dire.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how à dire vrai appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il a accepté votre proposition, mais, à dire vrai, sans enthousiasme.
À dire vrai, ces peintres n’avaient pas bonne réputation sur la place de Paris.
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.