faire marche arrière

\fɛʁ maʁ.ʃ‿a.ʁjɛʁ\

/\fɛʁ maʁ.ʃ‿a.ʁjɛʁ\/ verb

The verdict

“faire marche arrière” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
20
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Revenir en arrière ; reculer.

Key facts for faire marche arrière
PropertyValue
Headwordfaire marche arrière
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\fɛʁ maʁ.ʃ‿a.ʁjɛʁ\
Letters20
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “faire marche arrière” sits in French frequency

faire marche arrière falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for faire marche arrière is 20 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fɛʁ maʁ.ʃ‿a.ʁjɛʁ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for faire marche arrière, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is faire marche arrière, spelled F-A-I-R-E- -M-A-R-C-H-E- -A-R-R-I-È-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Revenir en arrière ; reculer.
  2. 2
    Se rétracter ; retirer une opinion avancée ou annuler un projet.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "faire marche arrière"?
"faire marche arrière" is spelled F-A-I-R-E- -M-A-R-C-H-E- -A-R-R-I-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fɛʁ maʁ.ʃ‿a.ʁjɛʁ\.
What does "faire marche arrière" mean?
As a verb, "faire marche arrière" means: Revenir en arrière ; reculer.
How do you pronounce "faire marche arrière"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "faire marche arrière" is \fɛʁ maʁ.ʃ‿a.ʁjɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "faire marche arrière" come from?
"faire marche arrière" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Using “faire marche arrière”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is F-A-I-R-E- -M-A-R-C-H-E- -A-R-R-I-È-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \fɛʁ maʁ.ʃ‿a.ʁjɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list