dos à dos
\do.z‿a do\
The verdict
“dos à dos” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dos contre dos.
Corpus desk
Index FR-dos-a-dos · dos à dos · French
dos à dos · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dos à dos |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \do.z‿a do\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « dos à dos » en français
Rare enough to double-check
dos à dos is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \do.z‿a do\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for dos à dos, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is dos à dos, spelled D-O-S- -À- -D-O-S.
Definition
- 1Dos contre dos.
- 2Chacun de son côté, sans donner d’avantage ni à l’un ni à l’autre.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how dos à dos appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Deux chaises disposées dos à dos permettent aux deux personnes de ne pas se voir pendant l’échange.
Juché sur le tronc d’un arbre abattu par la bourrasque, il observait ses deux frères, dos à dos, en train de dérouiller ces lourdauds de van der Merwe.
Synonyms
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.