bourru

\bu.ʁy\

/\bu.ʁy\/ adj

The verdict

“bourru” is uncommon French (frequency #50,687 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,687
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est d’une humeur brusque, fâchée et chagrine.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bourru · bourru · French

bourru · rank #50,687 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,687
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bousille

Nearest frequency peer: bousille (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « bourru »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « bourru » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for bourru
PropertyValue
Headwordbourru
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\bu.ʁy\
Letters6
Frequency rank#50,687
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bourru » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).bourrutombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « bousille » (#50,688), « brewer » (#50,689), « bougeant » (#50,684). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bourru » est au #50,687. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bourru is uncommon French at frequency #50,687 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \bu.ʁy\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for bourru in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is bourru, spelled B-O-U-R-R-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est d’une humeur brusque, fâchée et chagrine.
  2. 2
    Qui est rempli de bourre, qui n’est pas lisse.
  3. 3
    Poilu.
  4. 4
    Mal dégrossie, en parlant d’une pierre de construction.
  5. 5
    Qui n’a pas totalement fermenté et qui se conserve doux dans le tonneau durant une semaine, en parlant d’une sorte de vin blanc nouveau.
  6. 6
    Qui vient d’être trait, en parlant du lait.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Un esprit bourru. — Avoir l’humeur bourrue, etc.
  2. Messire Robert d’Estouteville s’était éveillé le matin du 7 janvier 1482 fort bourru et de massacrante humeur.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bourru"?
"bourru" is spelled B-O-U-R-R-U. The IPA pronunciation is \bu.ʁy\.
What does "bourru" mean?
As an adjective, "bourru" means: Qui est d’une humeur brusque, fâchée et chagrine.
How do you pronounce "bourru"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bourru" is \bu.ʁy\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bourru" come from?
"bourru" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "bourru", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list