boustrophédon
French, noun/bus.tʁɔ.fe.dɔ̃/
boustrophédon is spelled B-O-U-S-T-R-O-P-H-É-D-O-N (13 letters) and appears about once in every 56 million words in written French, the 236,816th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Boustrophédon is a French masculine noun meaning “boustrophedon (text written such that its direction alternates on each line, resulting in a continuous stream of characters spanning…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Tracé d’un système d’écriture qui change alternativement de sens, ligne après ligne, de droite à gauche…”.
What does boustrophédon mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineboustrophedon (text written such that its direction alternates on each line, resulting in a continuous stream of characters spanning multiple lines; frequently also involving the corresponding alternation of letter directionality using mirrored letters, indicating the direction of the text at any given point)
adjective
- 1
boustrophedonic (written as a boustrophedon, such that the text directionality alternates on each line, resulting in a continuous stream of characters spanning multiple lines)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Boustrophédonique.
noun: 1. Tracé d’un système d’écriture qui change alternativement de sens, ligne après ligne, de droite à gauche (lecture sinistroverse) puis de gauche à droite (lecture dextroverse). 2. Poème écrit en changeant le sens de l’écriture à chaque ligne, sans ponctuer ni séparer les mots et en essayant d’avoir le même nombre de lettres à chaque vers.
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 boustrophédon
- boustrophédons plural
- boustrophédone dated feminine
- boustrophédonne feminine rare
- boustrophédones dated feminine plural
- boustrophédonnes feminine plural rare
- bustrophe obsolete
- bustrophédon rare
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce boustrophédon?
- /bus.tʁɔ.fe.dɔ̃/
- \bus.tʁɔ.fe.dɔ̃\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to boustrophédon
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is boustrophédon in French?
boustrophédon appears about once in every 56 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).