Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

au contraire

/oʊ ˌkɔnˈtɹɛ(ə)ɹ/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.97 in modern English

Syllables: au -con-traire
IPA: /oʊ ˌkɔnˈtɹɛ(ə)ɹ/

13

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

adv

On the contrary.

Humorous

Example Sentences

"Travellers have written and spoken so much of the beauty of this celebrated piece of water, that I expected to be disappointed; but, au contraire, I am almost inclined to write a rhapsody myself."
"Fembots: (one by one) You can't resist us, Mr. Powers. / Austin Powers: Au contraire, baby. I think that you can't resist me."
"The A-list cannot be loved by all the people all of the time. Au contraire, the bigger and better and more gorgeous one gets, the more likely one is to inspire antipathy."

Etymology

Borrowed from French au contraire.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /oʊ ˌkɔnˈtɹɛ(ə)ɹ/
British English: /əʊ ˈkɒntɹɛː(ɹ)/

Usage

Humorous

Questions

How do you pronounce au contraire?: The recorded pronunciation is /oʊ ˌkɔnˈtɹɛ(ə)ɹ/.
What does au contraire mean?: On the contrary.
Where does au contraire come from?: Borrowed from French au contraire.

How to pronounce au contraire

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “au contraire”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/oʊ ˌkɔnˈtɹɛ(ə)ɹ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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