troubadour
/ˈtruːbəˌdɔː/
"troubadour" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“troubadour” is an uncommon English word, ranked #50,858 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #50,858
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An itinerant composer and performer of songs in medieval Europe; a jongleur or travelling minstrel.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | troubadour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtruːbəˌdɔː/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #50,858 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “troubadour” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for troubadour is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtruːbəˌdɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #50,858 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An itinerant composer and performer of songs in medieval Europe; a jongleur or travelling minstrel.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for troubadour in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old Occitan trobar (“to find”) via Old French troubadour. Piecewise doublet of trouveur. The correct English form is troubadour, spelled T-R-O-U-B-A-D-O-U-R.
Definition
- 1An itinerant composer and performer of songs in medieval Europe; a jongleur or travelling minstrel.
Etymology
From Old Occitan trobar (“to find”) via Old French troubadour. Piecewise doublet of trouveur.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "troubadour"?
What does "troubadour" mean?
How do you pronounce "troubadour"?
What is the origin of the word "troubadour"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “troubadour”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-R-O-U-B-A-D-O-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtruːbəˌdɔː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.