"faux pas" meaning in English

See faux pas in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /fəʊ pɑː/ [Received-Pronunciation], /fəʊ pɑːz/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-faux pas.wav [Southern-England], LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-faux pas2.wav [Southern-England] Forms: faux pas [plural]
Etymology: Unadapted borrowing from French faux pas (“faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step”). Etymology templates: {{ubor|en|fr|faux pas|t=faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step}} Unadapted borrowing from French faux pas (“faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step”) Head templates: {{en-noun|faux pas|nolinkhead=1}} faux pas (plural faux pas)
  1. An embarrassing or tactless blunder. Synonyms: misstep, mistake, blunder, error Translations (Translations): pas fals [masculine] (Catalan), pas en fals [masculine] (Catalan), passa en fals [feminine] (Catalan), 失禮 (Chinese Mandarin), 失礼 (shīlǐ) (Chinese Mandarin), 失態 (Chinese Mandarin), 失态 (shītài) (Chinese Mandarin), 失足 (shīzú) (Chinese Mandarin), 過失 (Chinese Mandarin), 过失 (guòshī) (Chinese Mandarin), 失誤 (Chinese Mandarin), 失误 (shīwù) (Chinese Mandarin), faux pas [neuter] (Czech), trapas [masculine] (Czech), kömmähdys (Finnish), etikettivirhe (Finnish), moka (Finnish), harha-askel (Finnish), faux pas [masculine] (French), impair [colloquial, masculine] (French), gaffe [feminine] (French), bourde [feminine] (French), Fauxpas [masculine] (German), passo falso [masculine] (Italian), 過失 (kashitsu) (alt: かしつ) (Japanese), faux pas [neuter] (Polish), беста́ктность (bestáktnostʹ) [feminine] (Russian), некраси́вый посту́пок (nekrasívyj postúpok) [masculine] (Russian), просту́пок (prostúpok) [masculine] (Russian), опло́шность (oplóšnostʹ) (english: blunder, mistake) [feminine] (Russian), ло́жный шаг (lóžnyj šag) [masculine] (Russian), trapas [masculine] (Slovak), prešľap [masculine] (Slovak), metida de pata [feminine, informal] (Spanish), metedura de pata [feminine] (Spanish), klavertramp [neuter] (Swedish), fadäs [common-gender] (Swedish), thất lễ (Vietnamese)

Download JSON data for faux pas meaning in English (7.2kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "faux pas",
        "t": "faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step"
      },
      "expansion": "Unadapted borrowing from French faux pas (“faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step”)",
      "name": "ubor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unadapted borrowing from French faux pas (“faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "faux pas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "faux pas",
        "nolinkhead": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "faux pas (plural faux pas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "name": "Japanese terms with redundant script codes",
          "parents": [
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii",
          "text": "Now my dear Lady Teazle if you but once make a trifling Faux Pas you can't conceive how cautious you would grow, and how ready to humour and agree with your Husband.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Chesterton, Charles Dickens, chapter 2",
          "text": "A saint after repentance will forgive himself for a sin; a man about town will never forgive himself for a faux pas.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 June 10, Roula Khalaf, “Lunch with the FT: François Hollande”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3",
          "text": "He was also prone to faux pas, none as memorable as his 2014 secret escapade from the Élysée. He was captured in full-faced helmet on the back of a motor scooter on his way to meet his mistress, the actress Julie Gayet, who is now his wife.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An embarrassing or tactless blunder."
      ],
      "id": "en-faux_pas-en-noun-gI3CSlM3",
      "links": [
        [
          "embarrassing",
          "embarrassing"
        ],
        [
          "tactless",
          "tactless"
        ],
        [
          "blunder",
          "blunder"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "misstep"
        },
        {
          "word": "mistake"
        },
        {
          "word": "blunder"
        },
        {
          "word": "error"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pas fals"
        },
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pas en fals"
        },
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "passa en fals"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "失禮"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shīlǐ",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "失礼"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "失態"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shītài",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "失态"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shīzú",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "失足"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "過失"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "guòshī",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "过失"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "失誤"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "shīwù",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "失误"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "faux pas"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "trapas"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "kömmähdys"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "etikettivirhe"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "moka"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "harha-askel"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "faux pas"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "colloquial",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "impair"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "gaffe"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "bourde"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Fauxpas"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "passo falso"
        },
        {
          "alt": "かしつ",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "kashitsu",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "過失"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "faux pas"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "bestáktnostʹ",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "беста́ктность"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "nekrasívyj postúpok",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "некраси́вый посту́пок"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "prostúpok",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "просту́пок"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "english": "blunder, mistake",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "oplóšnostʹ",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "опло́шность"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "lóžnyj šag",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "ло́жный шаг"
        },
        {
          "code": "sk",
          "lang": "Slovak",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "trapas"
        },
        {
          "code": "sk",
          "lang": "Slovak",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "prešľap"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "metida de pata"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "metedura de pata"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "klavertramp"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "fadäs"
        },
        {
          "code": "vi",
          "lang": "Vietnamese",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "thất lễ"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/fəʊ pɑː/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/fəʊ pɑːz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-faux pas.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-faux pas2.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/79/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas2.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas2.wav.mp3",
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      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "faux pas"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "faux pas",
        "t": "faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step"
      },
      "expansion": "Unadapted borrowing from French faux pas (“faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step”)",
      "name": "ubor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unadapted borrowing from French faux pas (“faux pas, blunder; misstep, false step”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "faux pas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "faux pas",
        "nolinkhead": "1"
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      "expansion": "faux pas (plural faux pas)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
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        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms borrowed from French",
        "English terms derived from French",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English unadapted borrowings from French",
        "Japanese terms with redundant script codes",
        "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii",
          "text": "Now my dear Lady Teazle if you but once make a trifling Faux Pas you can't conceive how cautious you would grow, and how ready to humour and agree with your Husband.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, Chesterton, Charles Dickens, chapter 2",
          "text": "A saint after repentance will forgive himself for a sin; a man about town will never forgive himself for a faux pas.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 June 10, Roula Khalaf, “Lunch with the FT: François Hollande”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3",
          "text": "He was also prone to faux pas, none as memorable as his 2014 secret escapade from the Élysée. He was captured in full-faced helmet on the back of a motor scooter on his way to meet his mistress, the actress Julie Gayet, who is now his wife.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An embarrassing or tactless blunder."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "embarrassing",
          "embarrassing"
        ],
        [
          "tactless",
          "tactless"
        ],
        [
          "blunder",
          "blunder"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "misstep"
        },
        {
          "word": "mistake"
        },
        {
          "word": "blunder"
        },
        {
          "word": "error"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/fəʊ pɑː/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/fəʊ pɑːz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-faux pas.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-faux pas2.wav",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/79/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas2.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-faux_pas2.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pas fals"
    },
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pas en fals"
    },
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "passa en fals"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "失禮"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shīlǐ",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "失礼"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "失態"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shītài",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "失态"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shīzú",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "失足"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "過失"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "guòshī",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "过失"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "失誤"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "shīwù",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "失误"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "faux pas"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "trapas"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "kömmähdys"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "etikettivirhe"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "moka"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "harha-askel"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "faux pas"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "impair"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "gaffe"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "bourde"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Fauxpas"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "passo falso"
    },
    {
      "alt": "かしつ",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "kashitsu",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "過失"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "faux pas"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "bestáktnostʹ",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "беста́ктность"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "nekrasívyj postúpok",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "некраси́вый посту́пок"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "prostúpok",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "просту́пок"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "english": "blunder, mistake",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "oplóšnostʹ",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "опло́шность"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "lóžnyj šag",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ло́жный шаг"
    },
    {
      "code": "sk",
      "lang": "Slovak",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "trapas"
    },
    {
      "code": "sk",
      "lang": "Slovak",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "prešľap"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "informal"
      ],
      "word": "metida de pata"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "metedura de pata"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "klavertramp"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "fadäs"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "thất lễ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "faux pas"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.