embâcle
French, noun/ɑ̃.bakl/
embâcle is spelled E-M-B-Â-C-L-E (7 letters) and appears about once in every 16 million words in written French, the 129,327th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Embâcle is a French masculine noun meaning “log jam, ice dam, or other obstruction of a river with natural debris” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Masse d'objets solides (bois, glaces) emportés par les eaux lors d’une crue puis bloqué dans le lit de la…”.
What does embâcle mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinelog jam, ice dam, or other obstruction of a river with natural debris
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Masse d'objets solides (bois, glaces) emportés par les eaux lors d’une crue puis bloqué dans le lit de la rivière, par exemple par un étranglement du lit (notamment au niveau d’un pont), et qui gêne le passage de l’eau.
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 embâcle
- embâcles plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce embâcle?
- /ɑ̃.bakl/
- /ɑ̃.bɑkl/
- \ɑ̃.bɑkl\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is embâcle in French?
embâcle appears about once in every 16 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).