terrain vague
\te.ʁɛ̃ vaɡ\
The verdict
“terrain vague” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Terrain qui, dans une ville, n’est ni construit, ni cultivé, ni occupé.
Corpus desk
Index FR-terrain-vague · terrain vague · French
terrain vague · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | terrain vague |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \te.ʁɛ̃ vaɡ\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « terrain vague » en français
Rare enough to double-check
terrain vague is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \te.ʁɛ̃ vaɡ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for terrain vague in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is terrain vague, spelled T-E-R-R-A-I-N- -V-A-G-U-E.
Definition
- 1Terrain qui, dans une ville, n’est ni construit, ni cultivé, ni occupé.
- 2Lieu vide ou stérile.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how terrain vague appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Au milieu du terrain vague et aride qui touche d’un côté à la muraille grise de la ville et à la Porte de Lambèse, et de l’autre aux premières pentes de la montagne, la mosquée s’élevait solitaire.
À quatre mètres de hauteur sur le second siège, une dame a jeté les yeux dans un entresol sans défiance, paisiblement ouvert en face d'un terrain vague, et elle t’a vue ma chère.
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.