abscons
French, adjective/ap.skɔ̃/
abscons is spelled A-B-S-C-O-N-S (7 letters) and appears about once in every 5 million words in written French, the 71,364th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Abscons is a French adjective meaning “so abstruse as to prevent comprehension entirely” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Difficile à comprendre, incompréhensible, obscur”.
What does abscons mean in English?
adjective
- 1
derogatoryso abstruse as to prevent comprehension entirely
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Difficile à comprendre, incompréhensible, obscur. 2. Qui est caché, mystérieux.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of abscons
- absconse feminine
- absconses feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce abscons?
- /ap.skɔ̃/
- \ap.skɔ̃\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to abscons
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is abscons in French?
abscons appears about once in every 5 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).