a priori
\a pʁi.ɔ.ʁi\
The verdict
“a priori” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Connu d'après des données antérieures à l'expérience ; su en s'appuyant sur les principes de l’intellect ; intuitif.
Corpus desk
Index FR-a-priori · a priori · French
a priori · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 priori |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \a pʁi.ɔ.ʁi\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « a priori » en français
Rare enough to double-check
a priori is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \a pʁi.ɔ.ʁi\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Connu d'après des données antérieures à l'expérience ; su en s'appuyant sur les principes de l’intellect ; intuitif.".
No misspelling variants are generated for a priori in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is a priori, spelled A- -P-R-I-O-R-I.
Definition
- 1Connu d'après des données antérieures à l'expérience ; su en s'appuyant sur les principes de l’intellect ; intuitif.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how a priori appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les axiomes sont des vérités a priori.
L’exemple le plus significatif de propositions a priori fondées sur cette intuition éidétique est fourni par les lois logico-mathématiques, à propos desquelles Husserl parle d’une ontologie formelle comme « science eidétique de l’objet en général ».
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.