à tâtons
\a tɑ.tɔ̃\
The verdict
“à tâtons” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. 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) - En tâtonnant dans l’obscurité.
Corpus desk
Index FR-a-tatons · à tâtons · French
à tâtons · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 tâtons |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \a tɑ.tɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « à tâtons » en français
Rare enough to double-check
à tâtons is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \a tɑ.tɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
à tâtons has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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 entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 à tâtons, spelled À- -T-Â-T-O-N-S.
Definition
- 1En tâtonnant dans l’obscurité.
- 2En tâtonnant faute des connaissances nécessaires ou d’une méthode certaine.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how à tâtons appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
De jour, le corridor était dans la pénombre et c'est presque à tâtons qu'on trouvait la clinche du salon d'attente.
Quelle est cette drôle de bête en forme de feuille ou de brindille ? C'est un phasme, complètement invisible, qui avance à tâtons. Amateur de feuilles d'eucalyptus ou de lierre, il est facile à élever en terrarium.
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.