ab ovo
\a.b‿ɔ.vo\
The verdict
“ab ovo” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dès le commencement.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ab-ovo · ab ovo · French
ab ovo · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 | ab ovo |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \a.b‿ɔ.vo\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « ab ovo » en français
Rare enough to double-check
ab ovo is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \a.b‿ɔ.vo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Dès le commencement.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ab ovo, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is ab ovo, spelled A-B- -O-V-O.
Definition
- 1Dès le commencement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ab ovo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
M’est avis qu’il convient de reprendre les choses ab ovo, et de traiter à fond, une bonne fois, la question des mœurs françaises.
Véridiquement, il exposa tout ab ovo, sans omettre finalement le pourquoi des curieuses étapes destinées à précéder la palpation de son manuscrit, qui, bien plié, fut enseveli sans peine dans son étroite cachette d'or à pierreries.
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.