au travers de

\o tʁa.vɛʁ də\

/\o tʁa.vɛʁ də\/ prep

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“au travers de” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a preposition. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - En allant d’un bord à l’autre, en traversant.

Corpus desk

Index FR-au-travers-de · au travers de · French

au travers de · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 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.

Key facts for au travers de
PropertyValue
Headwordau travers de
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPreposition
IPA\o tʁa.vɛʁ də\
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “au travers de” sits in French frequency

au travers de falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

au travers de is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as apreposition, transcribed \o tʁa.vɛʁ də\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for au travers de, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is au travers de, spelled A-U- -T-R-A-V-E-R-S- -D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    En allant d’un bord à l’autre, en traversant.
  2. 2
    Désigne un passage qu’on se fait entre des obstacles, ou en traversant, en pénétrant un obstacle.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Vous savez bien que seuls les fantômes peuvent passer au travers des portes !
  2. La voiture bringuebala durant des jours, au travers de grandes plaines sillonnées de fleuves immenses, où l’herbe grasse ondulait comme un océan au gré du vent.

Synonyms

à travers

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "au travers de"?
"au travers de" is spelled A-U- -T-R-A-V-E-R-S- -D-E. The IPA pronunciation is \o tʁa.vɛʁ də\.
What does "au travers de" mean?
As a preposition, "au travers de" means: En allant d’un bord à l’autre, en traversant.
How do you pronounce "au travers de"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "au travers de" is \o tʁa.vɛʁ də\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "au travers de" come from?
"au travers de" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list