tourbillon
\tuʁ.bi.jɔ̃\
The verdict
“tourbillon” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #17,580 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #17,580
- frequency rank, French
- 10
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Vent impétueux qui tournoie ; tornade.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tourbillon |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \tuʁ.bi.jɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #17,580 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tourbillon” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for tourbillon is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tuʁ.bi.jɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #17,580 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for tourbillon, with forms such as "oturbillon", "torubillon", and "toubrillon". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "tourbillons", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is tourbillon, spelled T-O-U-R-B-I-L-L-O-N.
Definition
- 1Vent impétueux qui tournoie ; tornade.
- 2Tout ce qui tournoie rapidement.
- 3Mouvement de l’eau qui tournoie avec violence.
- 4Mouvement élémentaire de la matière.
- 5Tout ce qui entraîne dans un mouvement rapide.
- 6Complication horlogère équipant certains garde-temps de haut de gamme destinée à compenser les perturbations dans la régularité des oscillations du balancier qu’entraîne la pesanteur.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oturbillon,torubillon,toubrillon,tourbbillon,tourbillno,tourbillonn,tourbiloln,tourbilon,tourblilon,touribllon,tourrbillon,ttourbillon,tuorbillon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tourbillon - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "tourbillon"?
What does "tourbillon" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "tourbillon"?
How do you pronounce "tourbillon"?
What language does "tourbillon" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “tourbillon”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is T-O-U-R-B-I-L-L-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \tuʁ.bi.jɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tourbillons” - see the side-by-side comparison. tourbillon vs tourbillons
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.