encombre
French, noun
encombre is spelled E-N-C-O-M-B-R-E (8 letters) and appears 1.5 times per million words in written French, the 24,887th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Encombre is a French masculine noun meaning “obstacle, hindrance, difficulty” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of encombrer. With an accent, encombré is a different word: “cluttered; congested”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Obstacle, difficulté matérielle ou d’autre nature”.
What does encombre mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineobstacle, hindrance, difficulty
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
adjective
- 1
cluttered; congested
- 2
burdened, encombered
- 3
jammed (of a switchboard)
verb
- 1
past participle of encombrer
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Obstacle, difficulté matérielle ou d’autre nature.
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 encombre
- encombrée feminine
- encombrés masculine plural
- encombrées feminine plural
- encombres plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to encombre
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is encombre in French?
encombre appears 1.5 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).