bourdon

Name: bourdon, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

\buʁ.dɔ̃\

/\buʁ.dɔ̃\/ noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“bourdon” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #19,766. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#19,766
frequency rank, French: 4,251
“B” headwords: 10
tracked misspellings: 17
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Long bâton de pèlerin surmonté d’une gourde, ou d’un ornement en forme de pomme.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bourdon · bourdon · French

bourdon · rank #19,766 · 10 variants · 17 confusables

FREQ-MID #19,766
LEN-LONG 7 letters
VOW-3 3 vowels
CONFUS-HIGH 17 pairs
VAR-MID 10 variants
BOOK-MID 4,251
PHOTO-FINISH boulettes

Nearest frequency peer: boulettes (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

bouffée

80,238
bouillante

80,237
boulettes

80,236
bourdon

80,235
boutin

80,234
briquet

80,233

What this shows « bourdon » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bourdon vs bouton

71% similar

bourdon vs Burton

57% similar

bourdon vs bourrin

71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bourdon
Property	Value
Headword	bourdon
Language	French
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	\buʁ.dɔ̃\
Letters	7
Frequency rank	#19,766
Misspellings tracked	10
Confusable pairs	17
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « bourdon »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.bourdonse place ici:

#19,766

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « boulettes » (#19,765), « boutin » (#19,767), « bouillante » (#19,764). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bourdon » est au #19,766. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around bourdon (IPA \buʁ.dɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #19,766 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for bourdon, with forms such as "bbourdon", "borudon", and "boudron". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "bouton", "Burton", "bourrin", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is bourdon, spelled B-O-U-R-D-O-N.

Definition

1
Long bâton de pèlerin surmonté d’une gourde, ou d’un ornement en forme de pomme.
2
Meuble représentant un bâton de pèlerin dans des armoiries. Il est généralement représenté en pal. Il est préférentiellement qualifié de bourdon de pèlerin dans les blasonnements. À rapprocher de bâton de prieur, bâton prieural, bourdon de pèlerin et crosse.
3
Bâton de magicien.
4
Grosse lance creuse utilisée par les chevaliers dans les tournois.
5
Ganse ou bourrelet inséré dans un biais ou dans une couture formant une ligne brodée en relief.
6
Fil ou paire de fils, plus épais que les autres fils utilisés pour la réalisation de l’ouvrage, destinés à faire ressortir un motif.
7
Perche de bois faite d’une branche d’arbre dont on a ôté l’écorce.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bourdon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

Planter le bourdon quelque part.
Floris et Mardi-Gras passèrent le reste de la journée à rendre l'espace viable pour le campement. C'était la première fois depuis longtemps qu'ils allaient dormir à bourdon planté.

Synonyms

bourdon de pèlerin

This word in other languages

staff(English)cayado(Español)cajado(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

bbourdon
borudon
boudron
bourddon
bourdno
bourdonn
bourodn
bourrdon
buordon
oburdon

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bourdon - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

Edit distance from "bourdon"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bourdon"?

"bourdon" is spelled B-O-U-R-D-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \buʁ.dɔ̃\.

What does "bourdon" mean?

As a noun, "bourdon" means: Long bâton de pèlerin surmonté d’une gourde, ou d’un ornement en forme de pomme.

What words are commonly confused with "bourdon"?

"bourdon" is commonly confused with "bouton", "Burton", "bourrin". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "bourdon"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bourdon" is \buʁ.dɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "bourdon" come from?

"bourdon" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.

Is PlainSpell free to use?

Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bourdon", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

briquet#19,768 bouffée#19,763 Bobigny#19,761 Corrèze#19,794

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

brisés10 variants aquarelle10 variants affluent10 variants acidité10 variants