rétropédalage

\ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.laʒ\

/\ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.laʒ\/ noun

The verdict

“rétropédalage” is uncommon French (frequency #73,530 among 5,742 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,530
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de rétropédaler, résultat de cette action.

Corpus desk

Index FR-retropedalage · rétropédalage · French

rétropédalage · rank #73,530 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,530
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH résisterait

Nearest frequency peer: résisterait (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « rétropédalage »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « rétropédalage » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for rétropédalage
PropertyValue
Headwordrétropédalage
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.laʒ\
Letters13
Frequency rank#73,530
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « rétropédalage » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).rétropédalagetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « résisterait » (#73,529), « réunifiée » (#73,531), « réussirai » (#73,532). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « rétropédalage » est au #73,530. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

rétropédalage is uncommon French at frequency #73,530 among 5,742 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.laʒ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for rétropédalage, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. 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.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is rétropédalage, spelled R-É-T-R-O-P-É-D-A-L-A-G-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de rétropédaler, résultat de cette action.
  2. 2
    Action de pédaler en arrière pour freiner.
  3. 3
    Type de frein qui freine ainsi.
  4. 4
    Renoncement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Déplacement en rétropédalage latéral avec mouvement de bras hors de l’eau.
  2. Dreeft est une paire de roues équipées d’un système de freinage par rétropédalage, adaptable à tout fauteuil roulant manuel.

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); 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 "rétropédalage"?
"rétropédalage" is spelled R-É-T-R-O-P-É-D-A-L-A-G-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.laʒ\.
What does "rétropédalage" mean?
As a noun, "rétropédalage" means: Action de rétropédaler, résultat de cette action.
How do you pronounce "rétropédalage"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rétropédalage" is \ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.laʒ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rétropédalage" come from?
"rétropédalage" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "rétropédalage", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list