barrer la route

/\ba.ʁe la ʁut\/ verb

The verdict

“barrer la route” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
15
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Empêcher de passer, sur une voie.

Key facts for barrer la route
PropertyValue
Headwordbarrer la route
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ba.ʁe la ʁut\
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “barrer la route” sits in French frequency

barrer la route 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.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for barrer la route is 15 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ba.ʁe la ʁut\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No misspelling variants are generated for barrer la route in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is barrer la route, spelled B-A-R-R-E-R- -L-A- -R-O-U-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Empêcher de passer, sur une voie.
  2. 2
    Bloquer.

Synonyms

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “barrer la route, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/barrer-la-route

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "barrer la route"?
"barrer la route" is spelled B-A-R-R-E-R- -L-A- -R-O-U-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.ʁe la ʁut\.
What does "barrer la route" mean?
As a verb, "barrer la route" means: Empêcher de passer, sur une voie.
How do you pronounce "barrer la route"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "barrer la route" is \ba.ʁe la ʁut\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "barrer la route" come from?
"barrer la route" 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.

Using “barrer la route”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is B-A-R-R-E-R- -L-A- -R-O-U-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ba.ʁe la ʁut\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our French index:

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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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list