ébouriffer
French, verb/e.bu.ʁi.fe/
ébouriffer is spelled É-B-O-U-R-I-F-F-E-R (10 letters) and appears about once in every 41 million words in written French, the 202,924th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ébouriffer is a French verb meaning “to ruffle, mess up (someone's hair)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Mettre la coiffure en désordre”.
What does ébouriffer mean in English?
verb
- 1
to ruffle, mess up (someone's hair)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Mettre la coiffure en désordre. 2. Surprendre, troubler par quelque chose d’inattendu.
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 ébouriffer
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- ébouriffant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- ébouriffé participle past
- ébouriffe first-person indicative present
- ébouriffes indicative present second-person
- ébouriffons first-person indicative plural
- ébouriffez indicative plural present
- ébouriffent indicative plural present
- ébouriffais first-person imperfect indicative
- ébouriffait imperfect indicative singular
- ébouriffions first-person imperfect indicative
- ébouriffiez imperfect indicative plural
- ébouriffaient imperfect indicative plural
- ébouriffai first-person historic indicative
- ébouriffas historic indicative past
- ébouriffa historic indicative past
- ébouriffâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce ébouriffer?
- /e.bu.ʁi.fe/
- \e.bu.ʁi.fe\
- [e.bu.ʁi.fe]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to ébouriffer
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is ébouriffer in French?
ébouriffer appears about once in every 41 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).