tourner autour du pot

\tuʁ.ne o.tuʁ dy po\

/\tuʁ.ne o.tuʁ dy po\/ verb

The verdict

“tourner autour du pot” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
21
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - User de détours inutiles, au lieu d’aller au fait, à la conclusion d’une affaire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tourner-autour-du-pot · tourner autour du pot · French

tourner autour du pot · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 21 letters
  • VOW-9 9 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for tourner autour du pot
PropertyValue
Headwordtourner autour du pot
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\tuʁ.ne o.tuʁ dy po\
Letters21
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tourner autour du pot » en français

tourner autour du potreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tourner autour du pot is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \tuʁ.ne o.tuʁ dy po\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "User de détours inutiles, au lieu d’aller au fait, à la conclusion d’une affaire.".

tourner autour du pot has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 tourner autour du pot, spelled T-O-U-R-N-E-R- -A-U-T-O-U-R- -D-U- -P-O-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    User de détours inutiles, au lieu d’aller au fait, à la conclusion d’une affaire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Parlez franchement, ne tournez point tant autour du pot.
  2. Le 7 septembre, la veille de la Nativité de la Vierge, maman sans même se donner le temps de tourner autour du pot, me dit que M. le Doyen m’attendrait dès 3 heures pour me confesser : « Comme ça tu passeras avant toutes ces dames ».

Synonyms

rôder autour du potdanser autour du pommiernoyer le poisson

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tourner autour du pot"?
"tourner autour du pot" is spelled T-O-U-R-N-E-R- -A-U-T-O-U-R- -D-U- -P-O-T. The IPA pronunciation is \tuʁ.ne o.tuʁ dy po\.
What does "tourner autour du pot" mean?
As a verb, "tourner autour du pot" means: User de détours inutiles, au lieu d’aller au fait, à la conclusion d’une affaire.
How do you pronounce "tourner autour du pot"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tourner autour du pot" is \tuʁ.ne o.tuʁ dy po\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tourner autour du pot" come from?
"tourner autour du pot" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list