Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

to and fro

/ˌtuː ən(d)ˈfɹəʊ/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.32 in modern English

Syllables: to and fro
IPA: /ˌtuː ən(d)ˈfɹəʊ/

12

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

1

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

adv

Back and forth; with a reciprocating motion.

verb

To go back and forth; to alternate.

adj

Pertaining to something or someone moving forward and back to the same position.

Dated

noun

The movement (of someone or something) forward followed by a return to the same position. May refer to a concept such as an emotional state or a relationship as well as a physical thing.

Dated

Example Sentences

"A light tossing to and fro and still rapidly advancing showed that one of the newcomers carried a lantern."
"Article V.—In consideration of the numerous difficulties arising from the authority exercised by local officials over the legal traffic at such places on the boundary as I-chou, Hui-ning, and Ch’ing-yuan, it has now been decided that the people on the frontier shall be free to go to and fro and trade as they please at Ts’e-men and I-chou on the two sides of the Ya-lu River, and at Hun-ch’un and Hui-ning on the two sides of the T’u-men River."
"But presently the fumes of the wine rising to his head, he became helplessly drunk and his side-muscles and limbs relaxed and he swayed to and fro on my back. When I saw that he had lost his senses for drunkenness, I put my head to his legs and, loosing them from my neck, stooped down well-nigh to the ground and threw him at full length, […]"
"He bends his knees more than the white man, and oscillates more to and fro, or from side to side."
"Even charges hopping on a larger array of localized sites than the two sites in (ii) execute normally many more to-and-fro oscillating motions than ..."
""For a while I didn't tell anyone on the ward where I was going, but my toing and froing made people curious and eventually I confided in a few.""

Usage

Dated

Inflected Forms

to-and-fro (alternative) tos and fros (present, singular) to and fros (present, singular) toing and froing (participle, present) to and froing (participle, present) toed and froed (participle, past) toed and froed (past) to and froed (participle, past) to and froed (past) to and fros (plural) tos and fros (plural)

Synonyms

back and forth backward and forward

Questions

How do you pronounce to and fro?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˌtuː ən(d)ˈfɹəʊ/.
What does to and fro mean?: Back and forth; with a reciprocating motion.

How to pronounce to and fro

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “to and fro”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˌtuː ən(d)ˈfɹəʊ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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