apropos

UK/ˌæp.ɹəˈpəʊ//ˌæp.ɹəˈpoʊ/

apropos adjective: of an appropriate or pertinent nature.

Adjective

apropos (comparative more apropos, superlative most apropos)

Of an appropriate or pertinent nature.
- Nothing easier. I received not long ago a map from my friend, Augustus Petermann, at Leipzig. Nothing could be more apropos.1877, Jules Verne, translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson, Journey into the Interior of the Earth, Chapter VI
- 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?"1974 February 9, “Tufts Porno”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 33, page 2
By the way, incidental.
- Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. "No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to [C. Auguste] 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...1887, A[rthur] 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., […])...
Synonyms:

by the way, incidentally, incidental

Preposition

apropos

Regarding, concerning, in regard to, on the subject of.
- "Go on, Uncle Max," said Nora pleasantly. "I like to watch your exceptional mind at work. Apropos the disappearance of Geoffrey, and that big old lonely house, you were saying—?"1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
- 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).2011, Jeremy Harding, “Diary”, in London Review of Books, 33.VII
Synonyms:

about, as for

Adverb

apropos

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

Noun

apropos (uncountable)

(obsolete) Fittingness, pertinence.

apropos meaning in Bengali, Malayalam and Arabic

apropos in Bengali

প্রাসঙ্গিক, সঙ্গতিপূর্ণ

apropos in Malayalam

with reference to, with regard to, with respect to: സംബന്ധിച്ച്, സന്ദർഭാനുസാരേണ, സന്ദർഭാനുസാരം, സന്ദർഭത്തിനനുസരിച്ച്, കുറിച്ച്, പരാമർശിച്ച്
appropriate, pertinent, relevant: തികച്ചും അനുയോജ്യമായ, ഉചിതമായ, യുക്തമായ, യഥായോഗ്യമായ, സന്ദർഭാനുസാരമായ, യഥോചിത

apropos in Arabic

of an appropriate or pertinent nature: مُنَاسِب munāsib

Examples of apropos in a sentence

Served outside the shell and sliced in bite-sized pieces, it's as apropos for a first date as a business dinner.2008 December, Anne Valdespino, “Mr. Stox”, in Orange Coast, volume 34, number 12, →ISSN, page 139:
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.1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a...

All 11 example sentences with apropos

Synonyms of apropos

Antonyms

malapropos

All synonyms and antonyms of apropos

Forms of apropos

comparative	more apropos
superlative	most apropos
alternative form	à propos
alternative form	àpropos

Origin of apropos

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.

Words formed from apropos

Words that rhyme with apropos

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about apropos

What does apropos mean?: Apropos means of an appropriate or pertinent nature.
What is apropos in Bengali?: Apropos in Bengali is প্রাসঙ্গিক, সঙ্গতিপূর্ণ. See Apropos meaning in Bengali.
How do you use apropos in a sentence?: Served outside the shell and sliced in bite-sized pieces, it's as apropos for a first date as a business dinner.
What part of speech is apropos?: Apropos can be an adjective, a preposition, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce apropos?: Apropos is pronounced /ˌæp.ɹəˈpəʊ/ (UK).

Words near apropos in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: apropos (page history and authors); apropos (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); apropos (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-apropos.ogg, en-au-apropos.ogg.

Cite this entry: “apropos.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/apropos. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.