thorn

/\tɔʁn\/ noun

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#43,696

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

thorn is aFrenchnoun. It means: Lettre scandinave aujourd’hui uniquement en islandais, mais qui fut également utilisée par des langues mortes telles que l’anglo-saxon. Majuscule : Þ, minuscule : þ. Pronounced \tɔʁn\. Often confused with ton and Tor.

Key facts for thorn
PropertyValue
Headwordthorn
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tɔʁn\
Letters5
Frequency rank#43,696
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for thorn is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tɔʁn\. Corpus data places it at rank #43,696 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Lettre scandinave aujourd’hui uniquement en islandais, mais qui fut également utilisée par des langues mortes telles que l’anglo-saxon. Majuscule : Þ, minuscule : þ.".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for thorn, with forms such as "htorn", "thhorn", and "thonr". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ton", "Tor", "tort", 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 thorn, spelled T-H-O-R-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Lettre scandinave aujourd’hui uniquement en islandais, mais qui fut également utilisée par des langues mortes telles que l’anglo-saxon. Majuscule : Þ, minuscule : þ.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: htorn,thhorn,thonr,thornn,thorrn,thron,tohrn,tthorn

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for thorn

Misspelling Variants of "thorn"

htorn5thhorn6thonr5thornn6thorrn6thron5tohrn5tthorn6
Misspelling Variants of "thorn"

Frequency rank: #43,696 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "thorn"?
"thorn" is spelled T-H-O-R-N. The IPA pronunciation is \tɔʁn\.
What does "thorn" mean?
As a noun, "thorn" means: Lettre scandinave aujourd’hui uniquement en islandais, mais qui fut également utilisée par des langues mortes telles que l’anglo-saxon. Majuscule : Þ, minuscule : þ.
What words are commonly confused with "thorn"?
"thorn" is commonly confused with "ton", "Tor", "tort". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "thorn"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "thorn" is \tɔʁn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "thorn" come from?
"thorn" 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 T 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.