en passant
\ɑ̃ pa.sɑ̃\
The verdict
“en passant” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - En faisant avec quelque sorte de précipitation et sans y avoir donné le temps nécessaire.
Corpus desk
Index FR-en-passant · en passant · French
en passant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" 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 | en passant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ɑ̃ pa.sɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « en passant » en français
Rare enough to double-check
en passant is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \ɑ̃ pa.sɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for en passant in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is en passant, spelled E-N- -P-A-S-S-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1En faisant avec quelque sorte de précipitation et sans y avoir donné le temps nécessaire.
- 2Se dit, en interrompant le fil d’une conversation, pour parler succinctement d’une chose qui se présente à l’esprit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how en passant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je n’ai pas eu le loisir d’examiner l’endroit, je ne l’ai vu qu’en passant.
Je ne lui ai parlé de votre affaire qu’en passant.
Synonyms
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.