faux pas
15
8.8
- noun
- /foʊ ˈpɑː/
- At the dinner party, he accidentally committed a social faux pas by forgetting to introduce his date to the host.
- commit a faux pas
- make a faux pas
- fashion faux pas
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Watch on YouTubeI can tell by your faces I've committed a faux pas.
- I can tell by your faces I've committed a faux pas.
- And I, I feel like not going to someone's wedding is the, it's like such a faux pas.
- Have you ever had any beauty or fashion faux pas or mishaps due to the fact that you're blind or visually impaired?
- I make social faux pas and I acknowledge that.
- That's like kind of burning in our minds if we think we've said like a faux pas.
- But I'll describe REM sleep from here on in as perhaps, you know, dream sleep, and I'll make that faux pas.
- And to be fair, he like compared to things people have done, anything he did wasn't really was more like a faux pas.
- This was a big scandal, a big faux pas in Canada and Justin Trudeau basically said the invasion of Ukraine was unjust.
Examples
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I could see how that might have been a faux pas.
Fiction book (1998) -
So, yeah, oddly, social faux pas can be a breeding ground for perhaps social excellence in a way.
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Oh, have I made a little faux pas?
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This seems to be my day of faux pas.
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If you could share "3 design faux pas," what would they be?
Blog text (4) -
I make social faux pas and I acknowledge that.
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You have no sympathy with my little faux pas, madame?
Fiction book (1991) -
It was a fashion faux pas for sure.
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It would be a professional faux pas.
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The gym is one of those places where you can commit major faux pas faster than you can sneeze.
Blog text (2)
Synonyms
202
3.1
A feeling of awkwardness or shame
58
1.6
A small mistake made by accident or carelessness
47
7.7
A remark or action made by accident that is embarrassing
45
3.0
A careless mistake that causes embarrassment or problems
42
5.3
A small wrong action that causes embarrassment or harm to people's trust
34
6.1
A careless mistake that causes problems or embarrassment
19
4.1
A short time when people feel uncomfortable or embarrassed
9
3.5
A small mistake that causes embarrassment
5
7.7
An embarrassing mistake made when someone is careless or nervous
2
8.2
A rude or embarrassing action at a social gathering that causes trouble
1
8.7
An embarrassing mistake someone makes in public
1
9.9
A mistake in language or a socially awkward action
1
6.5
A small mistake that causes embarrassment or trouble
1
9.9
Awkward or rude behavior in social situations that makes people feel uncomfortable
Antonyms
How Embarrassing
Surface Forms
Morphology
faux + pas
The phrase is a French loanword whose parts literally mean 'false' (faux) + 'step' (pas), so if a learner knows those constituents they can infer a 'false step' → misstep and map that metaphorically to a social blunder. However, because it is a fixed foreign borrowing and the shift from a literal misstep to an embarrassing social act is a metaphorical extension rather than a straightforward compositional meaning, it is not fully predictable for typical B1 learners.
Etymology
Faux pas comes from French and its words are faux 'false' and pas 'step'. Imagine someone taking the wrong step at a formal party and feeling embarrassed, and that image became the phrase for 'an embarrassing social mistake'.