terrer

\te.ʁe\

/\te.ʁe\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“terrer” is uncommon French (frequency #72,788 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#72,788
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Entourer, garnir, couvrir de terre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-terrer · terrer · French

terrer · rank #72,788 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #72,788
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH temer

Nearest frequency peer: temer (-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 « terrer »

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 « terrer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for terrer
PropertyValue
Headwordterrer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\te.ʁe\
Letters6
Frequency rank#72,788
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « terrer » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).terrertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « temer » (#72,787), « thief » (#72,789), « tchécoslovaques » (#72,786). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « terrer » est au #72,788. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

terrer is uncommon French at frequency #72,788 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \te.ʁe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 9 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for terrer, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is terrer, spelled T-E-R-R-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Entourer, garnir, couvrir de terre.
  2. 2
    Dégraisser une étoffe, en l’enduisant de terre à foulon.
  3. 3
    Blanchir en couvrant d’une terre grasse le fond des formes, en parlant du sucre.
  4. 4
    Se loger, se cacher sous terre, en parlant des animaux.
  5. 5
    Se cacher sous terre, en parlant de certains animaux.
  6. 6
    Se mettre à couvert du feu de l’ennemi par des travaux de terre.
  7. 7
    Se cacher, éviter de se montrer.
  8. 8
    Enterrer.
  9. 9
    Guillotiner.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Terrer un arbre, une vigne, un pied d’œillet.
  2. Le lapin terre, et le lièvre ne terre pas.

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 "terrer"?
"terrer" is spelled T-E-R-R-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \te.ʁe\.
What does "terrer" mean?
As a verb, "terrer" means: Entourer, garnir, couvrir de terre.
How do you pronounce "terrer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "terrer" is \te.ʁe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "terrer" come from?
"terrer" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "terrer", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

threat#72,790thymus#72,791stormy#72,763stalle#72,758

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list