mégatonne

\me.ɡa.tɔn\

/\me.ɡa.tɔn\/ noun

The verdict

“mégatonne” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Unité de mesure de masse en dehors du Système international (mais dont l’usage est accepté avec le SI), valant 10⁶ tonnes, et dont le symbole est Mt.

Corpus desk

Index FR-megatonne · mégatonne · French

mégatonne · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "M" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for mégatonne
PropertyValue
Headwordmégatonne
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\me.ɡa.tɔn\
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « mégatonne » en français

mégatonnereste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mégatonne is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \me.ɡa.tɔn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

mégatonne has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is mégatonne, spelled M-É-G-A-T-O-N-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Unité de mesure de masse en dehors du Système international (mais dont l’usage est accepté avec le SI), valant 10⁶ tonnes, et dont le symbole est Mt.
  2. 2
    Unité de mesure d’énergie explosive, équivalant à un million de tonnes de TNT. Son symbole est Mt ou MtTNT.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how mégatonne appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Nous savons officieusement mais de façon à peu près certaine, que la puissance atomique globale de l’Amérique est approximativement quatre fois celle de la Russie ; la proportion se situe autour des chiffres suivants : 25.000 mégatonnes pour l’Amérique et 7.000 mégatonnes pour la Russie.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mégatonne"?
"mégatonne" is spelled M-É-G-A-T-O-N-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \me.ɡa.tɔn\.
What does "mégatonne" mean?
As a noun, "mégatonne" means: Unité de mesure de masse en dehors du Système international (mais dont l’usage est accepté avec le SI), valant 10⁶ tonnes, et dont le symbole est Mt.
How do you pronounce "mégatonne"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mégatonne" is \me.ɡa.tɔn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mégatonne" come from?
"mégatonne" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list