détour

/\de.tuʁ\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#7,820

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

11

similar word pairs

détour is aFrenchnoun. It means: Action de s’écarter du chemin direct. Pronounced \de.tuʁ\. It ranks #7,820 in French word frequency. Often confused with dour and devoir.

Key facts for détour
PropertyValue
Headworddétour
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\de.tuʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#7,820
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs11
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of détour in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for détour is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \de.tuʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #7,820 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for détour, with forms such as "ddétour", "detour", and "dtéour". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "dour", "devoir", "dévoué", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is détour, spelled D-É-T-O-U-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de s’écarter du chemin direct.
  2. 2
    Endroit où un chemin change de direction.
  3. 3
    Chemin qui éloigne du droit chemin.
  4. 4
    Longueur, digression inutile.
  5. 5
    Discours dans lesquels on ne s’exprime que d’une manière indirecte, par crainte ou par ménagement, par délicatesse, etc.
  6. 6
    Sorte de biais, de moyen adroit, de ruse, de subtilité, pour éluder quelque chose, pour venir à bout de ce qu’on veut faire.
  7. 7
    Environs.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ddétour,detour,dtéour,déotur,détoru,détourr,déttour,détuor,édtour

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for détour

Misspelling Variants of "détour"

ddétour7detour6dtéour6déotur6détoru6détourr7déttour7détuor6
Misspelling Variants of "détour"

Frequency rank: #7,820 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "détour"?
"détour" is spelled D-É-T-O-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \de.tuʁ\.
What does "détour" mean?
As a noun, "détour" means: Action de s’écarter du chemin direct.
What words are commonly confused with "détour"?
"détour" is commonly confused with "dour", "devoir", "dévoué". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "détour"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "détour" is \de.tuʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "détour" come from?
"détour" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter D in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.