tonne
French, noun
tonne is spelled T-O-N-N-E (5 letters) and appears 7.1 times per million words in written French, the 8,672nd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tonne is a French feminine noun meaning “large barrel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of tonner. With an accent, tonné is a different word: “past participle of tonner”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Unité de mesure de masse en dehors du Système international (mais dont l’usage est accepté avec le SI)…”.
What does tonne mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininelarge barrel
- 2
femininetonne, metric ton
- 3
feminineton
en faire des tonnes
noun
- 1
femininea tonlet; a piece of medieval European armor of articulated lames or long flared metal skirt protecting the hips and thighs
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
verb
- 1
past participle of tonner
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Unité de mesure de masse en dehors du Système international (mais dont l’usage est accepté avec le SI), valant mille kilogrammes, et dont le symbole est t. Aussi appelée tonne métrique. 2. Unité de mesure de masse anglo-saxonne, valant soit 2 240 livres (tonne longue) au Royaume-Uni, soit 2 000 livres (tonne courte) aux États-Unis. 3. Lourdeur exagérée. 4. Quantité énorme.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tonne
- tonnes plural
- tonnée feminine
- tonnés masculine plural
- tonnées feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to tonne
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tonne in French?
tonne appears 7.1 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).