arrière-garde
\a.ʁjɛʁ.ɡaʁd\
The verdict
“arrière-garde” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Partie d’une armée, d’un corps de troupes qui marche la dernière.
Corpus desk
Index FR-arriere-garde · arrière-garde · French
arrière-garde · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 | arrière-garde |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \a.ʁjɛʁ.ɡaʁd\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « arrière-garde » en français
Rare enough to double-check
arrière-garde is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \a.ʁjɛʁ.ɡaʁd\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for arrière-garde in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is arrière-garde, spelled A-R-R-I-È-R-E---G-A-R-D-E.
Definition
- 1Partie d’une armée, d’un corps de troupes qui marche la dernière.
- 2Personnes les plus attachées à une idée, généralement les pionniers, lorsque cette idée n’est plus considérée comme nouvelle. Dans un sens péjoratif, souligne leur côté trop conservateur, voire l’obsolescence de leurs convictions.
- 3Arrière-plan, réserve.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how arrière-garde appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les chasseurs marchaient donc tranquillement le fusil en travers de la selle, accompagnés de leurs rastreros, à la suite des Comanches qui étaient loin de supposer qu’ils avaient une telle arrière-garde.
Fin février est très beau et le 2 mars nous quittons le cantonnement de Marquigny. Nous marchons en arrière-garde du bataillon et, par Louvergny, La Cassine, nous arrivons à l'étape à midi à Chémery-sur-Bar.
Antonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.