d’avant

\da.vɑ̃\

/\da.vɑ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“d’avant” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Précédent. L’occurrence qui précède immédiatement celle dont on vient de parler.

Corpus desk

Index FR-d-avant · d’avant · French

d’avant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "D" 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 d’avant
PropertyValue
Headwordd’avant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\da.vɑ̃\
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « d’avant » en français

d’avantn'entre pas dans le top 100.000 du français: zone de termes techniques, archaïques ou rares.

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

Rare enough to double-check

d’avant is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \da.vɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Précédent. L’occurrence qui précède immédiatement celle dont on vient de parler.".

d’avant doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is d’avant, spelled D-’-A-V-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Précédent. L’occurrence qui précède immédiatement celle dont on vient de parler.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. En de rares occasions, je me dis que je me suis peut-être fourvoyé. Que ce chemin n’était pas le mien. Mais mon cœur me rappelle aussitôt que rien ne pourrait plus remplacer ce que je vis ici, avec le petit. Rien ne le surpasse, ni ma vie d’avant, ni mon ancienne et lointaine civilisation.
  2. Le jour d’avant, j’avais envoyé un courriel.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "d’avant"?
"d’avant" is spelled D-’-A-V-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \da.vɑ̃\.
What does "d’avant" mean?
As an adjective, "d’avant" means: Précédent. L’occurrence qui précède immédiatement celle dont on vient de parler.
How do you pronounce "d’avant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "d’avant" is \da.vɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "d’avant" come from?
"d’avant" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list