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apropos. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
apropos, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
apropos in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from French à propos (“on that subject”).
Similar in meaning and form, and to some extent etymology, to appropriate, but not a doublet of it.
Pronunciation
Adjective
apropos (comparative more apropos, superlative most apropos)
- Of an appropriate or pertinent nature.
1974 February 9, “Tufts Porno”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 33, page 2:A particularly apropos line many will remember from this film was the closing shot of a Times editorial reading "Is There No Sense of Decency?"
2008 December, Anne Valdespino, “Mr. Stox”, in Orange Coast, volume 34, number 12, →ISSN, page 139:Served outside the shell and sliced in bite-sized pieces, it's as apropos for a first date as a business dinner.
- By the way, incidental.
1887, A Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., ), chapter II (The Science of Deduction), page 14:Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. "No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin," he observed. "Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine."
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
of an appropriate or pertinent nature
- Arabic: مُنَاسِب m (munāsib)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 適切 / 适切 (zh) (shìqiè)
- Finnish: sopiva (fi), osuva (fi), oleellinen (fi)
- French: à propos (fr)
- Greek: επίκαιρος (el) m (epíkairos)
- Italian: a proposito
- Manx: traaoil
- Polish: dorzeczny, stosowny (pl), à propos (pl)
- Portuguese: apropriado (pt), pertinente (pt)
- Russian: уме́стный (ru) (uméstnyj), подходя́щий (ru) (podxodjáščij)
- Spanish: pertinente (es), oportuno (es), a propósito (es), propositivo, relevante (es)
- Swedish: apropå (sv), på tal om
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Preposition
apropos
- Regarding, concerning, in regard to, on the subject of:
2011, Jeremy Harding, “Diary”, in London Review of Books, 33.VII:Few have the same root and branch obsession with the recent past or the avenger’s recall (‘the necessity for long memory and sarcasm in argument’, as he wrote apropos the old left intelligentsia in New York).
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
Adverb
apropos
- By the way.
- Timely; at a good time.
- To the purpose; appropriately.
Translations
Noun
apropos (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Fittingness, pertinence.
Anagrams
Danish
Etymology
Borrowed from French à propos.
Pronunciation
Noun
apropos n (singular definite aproposet or apropos'et, plural indefinite aproposer or apropos'er)
- aside
Inflection
Preposition
apropos
- apropos (regarding or concerning)
Adverb
apropos
- apropos
German
Etymology
Borrowed from French à propos.
Pronunciation
Adverb
apropos
- speaking of, apropos
- Synonyms: übrigens, nebenbei, bei der Gelegenheit, da wir gerade davon sprechen
Apropos, Spanien: Wir fliegen ja nächsten Monat nach Madrid.- Speaking of Spain, you know we’re flying to Madrid next month.
Further reading
- “apropos” in Duden online
- “apropos” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache