apropos

Alternative forms

• à propos
• àpropos

Etymology

Borrowed from French à propos (“on that subject”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌæp.ɹəˈpəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæp.ɹəˈpoʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ

Adjective

apropos (comparative more apropos, superlative most apropos)

1. Of an appropriate or pertinent nature.
   • 1877, Jules Verne, translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson, Journey into the Interior of the Earth, Chapter VI,

     Nothing easier. I received not long ago a map from my friend, Augustus Petermann, at Leipzig. Nothing could be more apropos.

2. by the way, incidental.
   • 1877, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

     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."

Preposition

apropos

1. Regarding or concerning.
   • 2011, Jeremy Harding, "Diary", 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).

Adverb

apropos

1. By the way.
2. Timely; at a good time.
3. To the purpose; appropriately.

Anagrams

• Sapporo

Alternative forms

• (nonstandard) à propos

Etymology

Borrowed from French à propos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /apropo/, [apʰʁ̥opʰo], [ɑpʰʁ̥opʰo]

Noun

apropos n (singular definite aproposet or apropos'et, plural indefinite aproposer or apropos'er)

1. aside

Preposition

apropos

1. apropos (regarding or concerning)

Adverb

apropos

1. apropos

Etymology

Borrowed from French à propos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [apʀoˈpoː]

• Audio

  (file)

Adverb

apropos

1. apropos

Further reading

• apropos in Duden online