dépourvu
French, noun/de.puʁ.vy/
dépourvu is spelled D-É-P-O-U-R-V-U (8 letters) and appears 3.3 times per million words in written French, the 14,875th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Dépourvu is a French masculine noun meaning “surprise” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a past participle of dépourvoir.
What does dépourvu mean in English?
adjective
- 1
without, lacking in, devoid of
dépourvu de vitamines
noun
- 1
masculinesurprise
prendre au dépourvu
verb
- 1
past participle of dépourvoir
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Privé de, sans, qui manque de quelque chose.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of dépourvu
- dépourvue feminine
- dépourvus masculine plural
- dépourvues feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce dépourvu?
- /de.puʁ.vy/
- \de.puʁ.vy\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to dépourvu
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is dépourvu in French?
dépourvu appears 3.3 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).