à fleur de corde
\a flœʁ də kɔʁd\
The verdict
“à fleur de corde” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Situation de la balle qui touche légèrement la corde en passant par-dessus.
Corpus desk
Index FR-a-fleur-de-corde · à fleur de corde · French
à fleur de corde · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 fleur de corde |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \a flœʁ də kɔʁd\ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « à fleur de corde » en français
Rare enough to double-check
à fleur de corde is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \a flœʁ də kɔʁd\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for à fleur de corde, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is à fleur de corde, spelled À- -F-L-E-U-R- -D-E- -C-O-R-D-E.
Definition
- 1Situation de la balle qui touche légèrement la corde en passant par-dessus.
- 2De justesse, dans un contexte qui a failli mal tourner.
- 3Avec une grande délicatesse.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how à fleur de corde appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La balle a passé à fleur de corde, il s’en est fallu de peu que le coup ne soit perdu.
L’affaire a passé à fleur de corde.
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.