rebours

/\ʁə.buʁ\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#15,736

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

12

similar word pairs

rebours is aFrenchnoun. It means: Sens contraire de ce qui est ou de ce qui doit être. Pronounced \ʁə.buʁ\. Often confused with rébus and retour.

Key facts for rebours
PropertyValue
Headwordrebours
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʁə.buʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#15,736
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for rebours is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁə.buʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #15,736 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for rebours, with forms such as "erbours", "rbeours", and "rebbours". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "rébus", "retour", "remous", 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 rebours, spelled R-E-B-O-U-R-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sens contraire de ce qui est ou de ce qui doit être.
  2. 2
    Contre-poil des étoffes.
  3. 3
    Contre-pied, contraire de ce qu’il faut.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: erbours,rbeours,rebbours,reborus,rebourrs,rebourss,rebousr,rebuors,reoburs,rrebours

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for rebours

Misspelling Variants of "rebours"

erbours7rbeours7rebbours8reborus7rebourrs8rebourss8rebousr7rebuors7
Misspelling Variants of "rebours"

Frequency rank: #15,736 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "rebours"?
"rebours" is spelled R-E-B-O-U-R-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁə.buʁ\.
What does "rebours" mean?
As a noun, "rebours" means: Sens contraire de ce qui est ou de ce qui doit être.
What words are commonly confused with "rebours"?
"rebours" is commonly confused with "rébus", "retour", "remous". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "rebours"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rebours" is \ʁə.buʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rebours" come from?
"rebours" 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 R 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.