tourbe

\tuʁb\

/\tuʁb\/ noun

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

The verdict

“tourbe” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #32,222. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#32,222
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
19
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Matière spongieuse et légère qui résulte de la décomposition à l’abri de l’air (dans l’eau) de certains végétaux (sphaigne, hypnum ou joncs) et qui est utilisée comme combustible et comme amendement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tourbe · tourbe · French

tourbe · rank #32,222 · 8 variants · 19 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #32,222
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 19 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tongs

Nearest frequency peer: tongs (-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 « tourbe »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « tourbe » 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).

tourbe vs tube
67% similar
tourbe vs toute
67% similar
tourbe vs tours
67% similar

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

Key facts for tourbe
PropertyValue
Headwordtourbe
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tuʁb\
Letters6
Frequency rank#32,222
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « tourbe »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).tourbese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « tongs » (#32,221), « toxicomanie » (#32,223), « togolais » (#32,220). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tourbe » est au #32,222. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around tourbe (IPA \tuʁb\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,222 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for tourbe, with forms such as "oturbe", "torube", and "toubre". 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 19 confusable-pair relationships, "tube", "toute", "tours", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is tourbe, spelled T-O-U-R-B-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Matière spongieuse et légère qui résulte de la décomposition à l’abri de l’air (dans l’eau) de certains végétaux (sphaigne, hypnum ou joncs) et qui est utilisée comme combustible et comme amendement.
  2. 2
    Populace, bas peuple.
  3. 3
    Gazon, pelouse.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Aux marais succédaient des tourbières, et sur l’herbe, roussie, s’alignaient des rangées de petits cubes noirs entassés géométriquement et marqués de lettres blanches ou de numéros qui étaient des tas de tourbe disposés pour sécher.
  2. La noirceur de la tourbe et des basaltes est coupée par des taches d’un gazon vert et abondant […].

Synonyms

molineraiesphaignaie

This word in other languages

peat(English)turba(Español)Torf(Deutsch)turfa(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oturbe
  • torube
  • toubre
  • tourbbe
  • toureb
  • tourrbe
  • ttourbe
  • tuorbe

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tourbe - 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.

oturbe2torube2toubre2tourbbe1toureb2tourrbe1ttourbe1tuorbe2
Edit distance from "tourbe"

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 "tourbe"?
"tourbe" is spelled T-O-U-R-B-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tuʁb\.
What does "tourbe" mean?
As a noun, "tourbe" means: Matière spongieuse et légère qui résulte de la décomposition à l’abri de l’air (dans l’eau) de certains végétaux (sphaigne, hypnum ou joncs) et qui est utilisée comme combustible et comme amendement.
What words are commonly confused with "tourbe"?
"tourbe" is commonly confused with "tube", "toute", "tours". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tourbe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tourbe" is \tuʁb\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tourbe" come from?
"tourbe" 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 "tourbe", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ternes#32,214voulus#32,237véreux#32,240égayer#32,246

Similar misspelling depth

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

tongs8 variantsstack8 variantsshots8 variantsabside8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list