en retard
\ɑ̃ ʁə.taʁ\
The verdict
“en retard” 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) - Après le moment prévu.
Corpus desk
Index FR-en-retard · en retard · French
en retard · 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 "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 retard |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ɑ̃ ʁə.taʁ\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « en retard » en français
Rare enough to double-check
en retard is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \ɑ̃ ʁə.taʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Après le moment prévu.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for en retard, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, 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 en retard, spelled E-N- -R-E-T-A-R-D.
Definition
- 1Après le moment prévu.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how en retard appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Aussi, dès qu’il arrive, agace-t-il les demoiselles de comptoir, dont les yeux vifs attirent force chalands ; se gaudit au sein des parures, des fichus, de la mousseline façonnée par ces habiles ouvrières ; ou, plus souvent encore, avant de dîner, il sert une pratique, copie une page du journal ou porte chez l’huissier quelque effet en retard.
« Madame vous fait dire qu’elle n’ira pas à la messe. Ne vous mettez pas en retard pour elle. »
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.