passant

\pa.sɑ̃\

/\pa.sɑ̃\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“passant” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,671. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,671
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Par où tout le monde passe.

Corpus desk

Index FR-passant · passant · French

passant · rank #1,671 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,671
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH palais

Nearest frequency peer: palais (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « passant »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « passant » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

passant vs payant
71% similar
passant vs paysan
71% similar
passant vs pesant
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for passant
PropertyValue
Headwordpassant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pa.sɑ̃\
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,671
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « passant »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).passantse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « palais » (#1,670), « principalement » (#1,672), « ouverte » (#1,669). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « passant » est au #1,671. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around passant (IPA \pa.sɑ̃\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,671 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for passant, with forms such as "apssant", "pasant", and "pasasnt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "payant", "paysan", "pesant", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is passant, spelled P-A-S-S-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Par où tout le monde passe.
  2. 2
    Se dit d'un quadrupède représenté de profil et adoptant une posture avec 3 pattes au sol, la patte avant dextre relevée, face tournée vers dextre. La posture est blasonnée quand elle diffère de la position ordinaire de l’animal. Cas particulier, le lion passant est dit léopardé.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. De plus, le Marché de la Madeleine est le premier marché couvert de Bruxelles et répond, comme les galeries commerçantes, au souci d'améliorer l'hygiène et la circulation dans les rues passantes en supprimant les innombrables petits marchés de plein air.
  2. Je remarquai que la rue n’aboutissait à rien, et ne devait pas être très-passante.

This word in other languages

busy(English)concurrido(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • apssant
  • pasant
  • pasasnt
  • passannt
  • passantt
  • passatn
  • passnat
  • ppassant
  • psasant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of passant - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

apssant2pasant1pasasnt2passannt1passantt1passatn2passnat2ppassant1
Edit distance from "passant"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "passant"?
"passant" is spelled P-A-S-S-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.sɑ̃\.
What does "passant" mean?
As an adjective, "passant" means: Par où tout le monde passe.
What words are commonly confused with "passant"?
"passant" is commonly confused with "payant", "paysan", "pesant". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "passant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "passant" is \pa.sɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "passant" come from?
"passant" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "passant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ouverte#1,669proches#1,673logique#1,666capital#1,652

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

Robert9 variantsstatut9 variantsclient9 variantscheval9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list