Word.ws English Dictionary

à contrecœur

Syllables: à con·tre·cœur/ˌæ ˌkɒn.tɹəˈkɜː/US/ˌɑ ˌkɑn.tɹəˈkɚ/

à contrecœur adverb: reluctantly, unwillingly, with disgust.

Adverb

à contrecœur (not comparable)

  1. Reluctantly, unwillingly, with disgust.
    • Xtien was young at the time and had met him after her father's death, didn't know then what she knows now, and when the man died there she was alone with her child – forsaken, without a penny. À contrecœur went on the streets, became ill, was taken to hospital, in all sorts of trouble …1882 May 14, Vincent van Gogh, “Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh”, in Masters of Art – Vincent van Gogh, Hastings, East Sussex: Delphi Classics, published 2014
    • Œdipe is another matter: he can't simply be ejected from the plot. So Dircé in the end has to take back everything she had said earlier about Œdipe's tyrannical behaviour and claims that she had said it à contrecœur anyway.1988, Terence Cave, Recognitions: A Study in Poetics, Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 319

Forms of à contrecœur

alternative formà contre-coeur
alternative formà contre-cœur
alternative formà contrecoeur

Origin of à contrecœur

Borrowed from French à contrecœur, à contre-cœur, from Old French avoir a contrecuer, avoir contrecœur (“to dislike”), from à (“for, with”) + contre-cœur (“aversion, dislike”) (contre (“against”) + cœur (“heart”)); compare Old French estre contre coer a (“to be adverse to”).

Questions about à contrecœur

What does à contrecœur mean?
À contrecœur means reluctantly, unwillingly, with disgust.
What part of speech is à contrecœur?
À contrecœur is an adverb.
How do you pronounce à contrecœur?
À contrecœur is pronounced /ˌæ ˌkɒn.tɹəˈkɜː/ (UK).

Words near à contrecœur in the dictionary

  1. ß
  2. à bas
  3. à bouche
  4. à contre-coeur
  5. à contrecoeur
  6. à contrecœur
  7. à deux
  8. à gogo
  9. à la
  10. à la carte
  11. à la king

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: à contrecœur (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-à contrecœur.wav.

Cite this entry: “à contrecœur.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/%C3%A0_contrec%C5%93ur. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.