se défiler
\sə de.fi.le\
The verdict
“se défiler” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Couvrir sa marche à la faveur d’un abri.
Corpus desk
Index FR-se-defiler · se défiler · French
se défiler · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | se défiler |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \sə de.fi.le\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « se défiler » en français
Rare enough to double-check
se défiler is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \sə de.fi.le\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
se défiler has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 se défiler, spelled S-E- -D-É-F-I-L-E-R.
Definition
- 1Couvrir sa marche à la faveur d’un abri.
- 2Se dérober.
- 3Abandonner un engagement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how se défiler appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
On avait bien là-haut, comme disait le zouave, l'inconvénient des obus qui tombaient çà et là; mais on pouvait aisément se défiler des balles.
— Il s’agit de te défiler au plus vite. Trop de gens t’ont vu ou savent qui tu es.
Antonyms
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.