au passage
\o pa.saʒ\
The verdict
“au passage” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dénote l’ajout d’un court argument.
Corpus desk
Index FR-au-passage · au passage · French
au passage · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | au passage |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \o pa.saʒ\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « au passage » en français
Rare enough to double-check
au passage is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \o pa.saʒ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Dénote l’ajout d’un court argument.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for au passage, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
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 au passage, spelled A-U- -P-A-S-S-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1Dénote l’ajout d’un court argument.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how au passage appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Elle a en effet mis les trois moyens d'information d’accord en commençant par occuper la radio, puis en mettant la main sur la télévision, tuant au passage une quatorzaine de Lituaniens indépendantistes et sans armes.
La fanfare l’avait épargné, serpentante et alignée, et les couacs qu’il avait notés au passage ne lui étaient pas spécialement destinés.
Synonyms
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.