à voix basse

\a vwa bas\

/\a vwa bas\/ adv

The verdict

“à voix basse” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Avec un faible volume sonore, en parlant de s'exprimer oralement.

Key facts for à voix basse
PropertyValue
Headwordà voix basse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\a vwa bas\
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “à voix basse” sits in French frequency

à voix basse falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for à voix basse is 12 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \a vwa bas\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Avec un faible volume sonore, en parlant de s'exprimer oralement.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for à voix basse, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

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 à voix basse, spelled À- -V-O-I-X- -B-A-S-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Avec un faible volume sonore, en parlant de s'exprimer oralement.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "à voix basse"?
"à voix basse" is spelled À- -V-O-I-X- -B-A-S-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \a vwa bas\.
What does "à voix basse" mean?
As an adverb, "à voix basse" means: Avec un faible volume sonore, en parlant de s'exprimer oralement.
How do you pronounce "à voix basse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "à voix basse" is \a vwa bas\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "à voix basse" come from?
"à voix basse" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “à voix basse”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is À- -V-O-I-X- -B-A-S-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \a vwa bas\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list