Tombouctou
\tɔ̃.buk.tu\
The verdict
“Tombouctou” has 14 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #29,175. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #29,175
- frequency rank, French
- 3,703
- “T” headwords
- 14
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ville du centre du Mali.
Corpus desk
Index FR-tombouctou · Tombouctou · French
Tombouctou · rank #29,175 · 14 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-MID #29,175
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-HIGH 14 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,703
- PHOTO-FINISH tory
Nearest frequency peer: tory (+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 « Tombouctou »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- Tessier
Tessier
70,829 corpus weight
- thaïlandaise
thaïlandaise
70,828 corpus weight
- Tombouctou
Tombouctou
70,826 corpus weight
- tory
tory
70,825 corpus weight
- trempée
trempée
70,824 corpus weight
- trinity
trinity
70,823 corpus weight
What this shows « Tombouctou » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Tombouctou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | \tɔ̃.buk.tu\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #29,175 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « Tombouctou »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 14 spelling variants around Tombouctou (IPA \tɔ̃.buk.tu\), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #29,175 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for Tombouctou, with forms such as "otmbouctou", "tmobouctou", and "tobmouctou". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is Tombouctou, spelled T-O-M-B-O-U-C-T-O-U.
Definition
- 1Ville du centre du Mali.
- 2Région du Mali.
- 3Destination hors de portée.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Tombouctou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Originaire de Tombouctou (nord), Halima Cissé avait été prise en charge à Bamako, puis transférée le 30 mars au Maroc pour un meilleur suivi de cette grossesse qui «sort de l’ordinaire», selon le ministère de la Santé.
Pas même Gaétan Barrette. On dit même que s’il annonçait son départ, le soupir de soulagement du caucus libéral résonnerait jusqu’à Tombouctou.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- otmbouctou
- tmobouctou
- tobmouctou
- tombbouctou
- tombocutou
- tomboucctou
- tomboucotu
- tomboucttou
- tombouctuo
- tomboutcou
- tombuoctou
- tommbouctou
- tomobuctou
- ttombouctou
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Tombouctou - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "Tombouctou"?
What does "Tombouctou" mean?
What are common misspellings of "Tombouctou"?
How do you pronounce "Tombouctou"?
What language does "Tombouctou" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Tombouctou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).