terreur

\tɛ.ʁœʁ\

/\tɛ.ʁœʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“terreur” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,445. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#6,445
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
13
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Émotion profonde causée dans l’âme par la présence, l’annonce, la peinture d’un grand mal ou d’un grand péril ; épouvante, crainte violente.

Corpus desk

Index FR-terreur · terreur · French

terreur · rank #6,445 · 8 variants · 13 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,445
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 13 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH surprises

Nearest frequency peer: surprises (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « terreur »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « terreur » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

terreur vs tireur
71% similar
terreur vs terror
71% similar
terreur vs terroir
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for terreur
PropertyValue
Headwordterreur
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tɛ.ʁœʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#6,445
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « terreur »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).terreurse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « surprises » (#6,444), « tragique » (#6,446), « suffisante » (#6,443). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « terreur » est au #6,445. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around terreur (IPA \tɛ.ʁœʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,445 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for terreur, with forms such as "etrreur", "tererur", and "tereur". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "tireur", "terror", "terroir", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 terreur, spelled T-E-R-R-E-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Émotion profonde causée dans l’âme par la présence, l’annonce, la peinture d’un grand mal ou d’un grand péril ; épouvante, crainte violente.
  2. 2
    Objet de crainte, d’épouvante.
  3. 3
    Personnage qui provoque la peur.
  4. 4
    Régime politique qui use d’une rigueur impitoyable et inspire une grande crainte.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Cromwel n'étoit pas moins agité des terreurs de la tyrannie. Il étoit toujours couvert d'une cuirasse, chargé d'armes offensives, et environné de satellites : […].
  2. […] je ne suis pas encore complètement remise des terreurs que vous m’avez causées, terreurs que votre démarche d’aujourd’hui redouble encore au lieu de les diminuer ; […].

This word in other languages

terror(English)terror(Español)Terror(Deutsch)terror(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • etrreur
  • tererur
  • tereur
  • terreru
  • terreurr
  • terruer
  • trereur
  • tterreur

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of terreur - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

etrreur2tererur2tereur1terreru2terreurr1terruer2trereur2tterreur1
Edit distance from "terreur"

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 "terreur"?
"terreur" is spelled T-E-R-R-E-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \tɛ.ʁœʁ\.
What does "terreur" mean?
As a noun, "terreur" means: Émotion profonde causée dans l’âme par la présence, l’annonce, la peinture d’un grand mal ou d’un grand péril ; épouvante, crainte violente.
What words are commonly confused with "terreur"?
"terreur" is commonly confused with "tireur", "terror", "terroir". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "terreur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "terreur" is \tɛ.ʁœʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "terreur" come from?
"terreur" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

soumise#6,442weekend#6,449échappé#6,450évasion#6,456

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

relief8 variantsjolies8 variantscréés8 variantscauser8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list