laisser tomber
\lɛ.se tɔ̃.be\
The verdict
“laisser tomber” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Abandonner, ne pas insister dans ce que l’on avait entrepris.
Corpus desk
Index FR-laisser-tomber · laisser tomber · French
laisser tomber · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" 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 | laisser tomber |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \lɛ.se tɔ̃.be\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « laisser tomber » en français
Rare enough to double-check
laisser tomber is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \lɛ.se tɔ̃.be\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
laisser tomber has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is laisser tomber, spelled L-A-I-S-S-E-R- -T-O-M-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1Abandonner, ne pas insister dans ce que l’on avait entrepris.
- 2Abandonner une personne.
- 3Laisser tomber un objet au sens propre.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how laisser tomber appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Et puis, avouons-le, je suis de ceux qui gueulent, quand on les lèse, mais qui éprouvent ensuite une sotte, une orgueilleuse répugnance à défendre jusqu'au bout leurs intérêts. Je laissai tomber.
On est triste, minouchet ? lui demande le travelo brun en venant s'appuyer contre lui. Chagrin d’amour ? Laisse tomber les filles, crois-moi ! Toutes des salopes ! — et essaye avec moi, je t'apprendrai des gimmicks terribles !...
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.