rétropédaler
French, verb\ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.le\
rétropédaler is spelled R-É-T-R-O-P-É-D-A-L-E-R (12 letters) and appears about once in every 35 million words in written French, the 187,990th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Rétropédaler is a French verb meaning “to backpedal” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Pédaler dans le sens contraire au sens de marche”.
What does rétropédaler mean in English?
verb
- 1
to backpedal
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Pédaler dans le sens contraire au sens de marche. 2. Pédaler en sens inverse pour reculer (faire marche arrière) 3. Renoncer, faire machine arrière, opérer un revirement.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of rétropédaler
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- rétropédalant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- rétropédalé participle past
- rétropédale first-person indicative present
- rétropédales indicative present second-person
- rétropédalons first-person indicative plural
- rétropédalez indicative plural present
- rétropédalent indicative plural present
- rétropédalais first-person imperfect indicative
- rétropédalait imperfect indicative singular
- rétropédalions first-person imperfect indicative
- rétropédaliez imperfect indicative plural
- rétropédalaient imperfect indicative plural
- rétropédalai first-person historic indicative
- rétropédalas historic indicative past
- rétropédala historic indicative past
- rétropédalâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce rétropédaler?
- \ʁe.tʁo.pe.da.le\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to rétropédaler
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is rétropédaler in French?
rétropédaler appears about once in every 35 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).