topinambour

\tɔ.pi.nɑ̃.buʁ\

/\tɔ.pi.nɑ̃.buʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“topinambour” is uncommon French (frequency #85,329 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#85,329
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Plante à fleurs jaunes radiées, à haute tige et à racines garnies d’une multitude de tubercules dont la peau est de brune à blanche, et la chair blanche.

Corpus desk

Index FR-topinambour · topinambour · French

topinambour · rank #85,329 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #85,329
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tombstone

Nearest frequency peer: tombstone (-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 « topinambour »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for topinambour
PropertyValue
Headwordtopinambour
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tɔ.pi.nɑ̃.buʁ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#85,329
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « topinambour » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.topinambourtombe 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: « tombstone » (#85,328), « torque » (#85,330), « tolérera » (#85,327). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « topinambour » est au #85,329. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

topinambour is uncommon French at frequency #85,329 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \tɔ.pi.nɑ̃.buʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for topinambour, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

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 topinambour, spelled T-O-P-I-N-A-M-B-O-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Plante à fleurs jaunes radiées, à haute tige et à racines garnies d’une multitude de tubercules dont la peau est de brune à blanche, et la chair blanche.
  2. 2
    Ses tubercules, qui sont comestibles pour les animaux et les humains et qui ont un goût proche de l’artichaut.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dans cette partie de jardin j’avais planté un légume qu’on m’avait donné et qui était presque inconnu dans notre village, — des topinambours. On m’avait dit qu’il produisait des tubercules bien meilleurs que ceux des pommes de terre, car ils avaient le goût de l’artichaut, du navet et plusieurs autres légumes encore.
  2. Le plant de topinambour est tellement grand et décoratif que, dans certaines régions, on s’en sert pour délimiter les terrains.

Synonyms

artichaut de Jérusalemartichaut du Canadacul d’artichauthélianthe tubéreuxpoire de terrepoirée de terresoleil tubéreuxsoleil vivacetartifletopinetruffe du Canada

This word in other languages

Jerusalem artichoke(English)pataca(Español)Topinambur(Deutsch)

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 "topinambour"?
"topinambour" is spelled T-O-P-I-N-A-M-B-O-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \tɔ.pi.nɑ̃.buʁ\.
What does "topinambour" mean?
As a noun, "topinambour" means: Plante à fleurs jaunes radiées, à haute tige et à racines garnies d’une multitude de tubercules dont la peau est de brune à blanche, et la chair blanche.
How do you pronounce "topinambour"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "topinambour" is \tɔ.pi.nɑ̃.buʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "topinambour" come from?
"topinambour" 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 "topinambour", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

titulariser#85,325triathlètes#85,338synesthésie#85,302supervisées#85,295

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list