faux pas
\fo pa\
The verdict
“faux pas” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pas dans lequel on glisse ou chancelle.
Corpus desk
Index FR-faux-pas · faux pas · French
faux pas · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" 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 | faux pas |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fo pa\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « faux pas » en français
Rare enough to double-check
faux pas is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \fo pa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for faux pas in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 faux pas, spelled F-A-U-X- -P-A-S.
Definition
- 1Pas dans lequel on glisse ou chancelle.
- 2Faute, maladresse embarrassante dans un contexte social, impair.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how faux pas appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le porteur vient de faire un faux pas. La caisse glisse de ses épaules, tombe… heureusement par-dessus le bastingage […].
Elles cueillent du bout des doigts ce qu’il leur faut d’eau sainte, avec des gestes précautionneux, puis elles avancent dans l’allée centrale sur la pointe des pieds, tenant d’une main la mantille sur le décolleté trop profond et de l’autre serrant la jupe de taffetas contre leurs cuisses en prévision de quelque malheur hypothétique : coup de vent malenco…
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.