passage obligé

\pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\

/\pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\/ noun

The verdict

“passage obligé” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lieu de franchissement qui ne peut être évité, étant le seul praticable.

Key facts for passage obligé
PropertyValue
Headwordpassage obligé
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “passage obligé” sits in French frequency

passage obligé 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 passage obligé is 14 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for passage obligé, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 passage obligé, spelled P-A-S-S-A-G-E- -O-B-L-I-G-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lieu de franchissement qui ne peut être évité, étant le seul praticable.
  2. 2
    Lieu où l’on revient systématiquement.
  3. 3
    Événement inévitable.

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 "passage obligé"?
"passage obligé" is spelled P-A-S-S-A-G-E- -O-B-L-I-G-É. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\.
What does "passage obligé" mean?
As a noun, "passage obligé" means: Lieu de franchissement qui ne peut être évité, étant le seul praticable.
How do you pronounce "passage obligé"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "passage obligé" is \pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "passage obligé" come from?
"passage obligé" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 “passage obligé”

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

  • The one correct French spelling is P-A-S-S-A-G-E- -O-B-L-I-G-É - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\ (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