passage obligé

\pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\

/\pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\/ noun

The verdict

“passage obligé” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. 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) - Lieu de franchissement qui ne peut être évité, étant le seul praticable.

Corpus desk

Index FR-passage-oblige · passage obligé · French

passage obligé · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" 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.

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)

Longue queue: rang de « passage obligé » en français

passage obligésiège au-delà des 100.000 formes les plus fréquentes du français, dans la traîne du lexique spécialisé ou peu usité.

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

Rare enough to double-check

passage obligé is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pa.sa.ʒ‿ɔb.li.ʒe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how passage obligé appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ç'a été la porte d’entrée des premiers explorateurs en Amérique du Nord, c’est le passage obligé de nombreuses espèces migratoires et une formation géologique unique au Canada, où vivaient les Micmacs et où sont débarqués les pêcheurs basques.
  2. Les sommets de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) ont leurs passages obligés, dont la célébration de la grande famille qui, sur les cinq continents, a « cette langue en partage », selon la formule consacrée.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list