bourdonner
French, verb/buʁ.dɔ.ne/
bourdonner is spelled B-O-U-R-D-O-N-N-E-R (10 letters) and appears about once in every 9 million words in written French, the 98,883rd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bourdonner is a French verb meaning “to buzz, drone” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Émettre un bourdonnement en parlant principalement des battements d’ailes des insectes, des petits oiseaux”.
What does bourdonner mean in English?
verb
- 1
to buzz, drone
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Émettre un bourdonnement en parlant principalement des battements d’ailes des insectes, des petits oiseaux. 2. Fait qu’un objet, qu’une machine, qu’une surface émette des vibrations plus ou moins sonores. 3. Quand un grand nombre de personnes émettent un murmure sourd et confus en discutant entre elles. 4. Ressentir un bruit sourd et lancinant dans sa tête.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of bourdonner
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- bourdonnant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- bourdonné participle past
- bourdonne first-person indicative present
- bourdonnes indicative present second-person
- bourdonnons first-person indicative plural
- bourdonnez indicative plural present
- bourdonnent indicative plural present
- bourdonnais first-person imperfect indicative
- bourdonnait imperfect indicative singular
- bourdonnions first-person imperfect indicative
- bourdonniez imperfect indicative plural
- bourdonnaient imperfect indicative plural
- bourdonnai first-person historic indicative
- bourdonnas historic indicative past
- bourdonna historic indicative past
- bourdonnâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce bourdonner?
- /buʁ.dɔ.ne/
- \buʁ.dɔ.ne\
- [buʁ.dɔ.ne]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to bourdonner
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is bourdonner in French?
bourdonner appears about once in every 9 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).