ténébreuse

\te.ne.bʁøz\

/\te.ne.bʁøz\/ adj

The verdict

“ténébreuse” is uncommon French (frequency #50,560 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,560
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Féminin singulier de ténébreux.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tenebreuse · ténébreuse · French

ténébreuse · rank #50,560 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,560
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH téléfilms

Nearest frequency peer: téléfilms (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « ténébreuse »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « ténébreuse » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ténébreuse
PropertyValue
Headwordténébreuse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\te.ne.bʁøz\
Letters10
Frequency rank#50,560
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « ténébreuse » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).ténébreusetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « téléfilms » (#50,559), « tétine » (#50,561), « twice » (#50,558). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « ténébreuse » est au #50,560. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ténébreuse is uncommon French at frequency #50,560 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \te.ne.bʁøz\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Féminin singulier de ténébreux.".

No misspelling variants are generated for ténébreuse in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is ténébreuse, spelled T-É-N-É-B-R-E-U-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Féminin singulier de ténébreux.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Quoique, dans ce temps calamiteux, les paysans se hasardassent difficilement à venir en ville, Corentin vit un petit homme à figure ténébreuse, couvert d’une peau de bique, et qui portait à son bras un petit panier rond de forme écrasée, se dirigeant vers la maison de mademoiselle de Verneuil, après avoir jeté autour de lui des regards assez insouciants.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ténébreuse"?
"ténébreuse" is spelled T-É-N-É-B-R-E-U-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \te.ne.bʁøz\.
What does "ténébreuse" mean?
As an adjective, "ténébreuse" means: Féminin singulier de ténébreux.
How do you pronounce "ténébreuse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ténébreuse" is \te.ne.bʁøz\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ténébreuse" come from?
"ténébreuse" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ténébreuse", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list