adagio

\a.dad.ʒjo\

/\a.dad.ʒjo\/ adv

The verdict

“adagio” is uncommon French (frequency #53,732 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,732
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - D’un mouvement plus lent que le mouvement indiqué par andante, mais moins lent que le mouvement indiqué par largo.

Corpus desk

Index FR-adagio · adagio · French

adagio · rank #53,732 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,732
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH acétique

Nearest frequency peer: acétique (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « adagio »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « adagio » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for adagio
PropertyValue
Headwordadagio
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\a.dad.ʒjo\
Letters6
Frequency rank#53,732
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « adagio » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).adagiotombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « acétique » (#53,731), « ADC » (#53,733), « acidulée » (#53,729). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « adagio » est au #53,732. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

adagio is uncommon French at frequency #53,732 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as anadverb, transcribed \a.dad.ʒjo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "D’un mouvement plus lent que le mouvement indiqué par andante, mais moins lent que le mouvement indiqué par largo.".

adagio doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is adagio, spelled A-D-A-G-I-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    D’un mouvement plus lent que le mouvement indiqué par andante, mais moins lent que le mouvement indiqué par largo.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how adagio appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ce morceau doit être joué adagio.
  2. Ce morceau est une dérivation du thème qui, repris et transformé, sera celui de l'adagio.

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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "adagio"?
"adagio" is spelled A-D-A-G-I-O. The IPA pronunciation is \a.dad.ʒjo\.
What does "adagio" mean?
As an adverb, "adagio" means: D’un mouvement plus lent que le mouvement indiqué par andante, mais moins lent que le mouvement indiqué par largo.
How do you pronounce "adagio"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "adagio" is \a.dad.ʒjo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "adagio" come from?
"adagio" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "adagio", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list