tournoyant

\tuʁ.nwa.jɑ̃\

/\tuʁ.nwa.jɑ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“tournoyant” is uncommon French (frequency #77,095 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#77,095
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui tournoie.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tournoyant · tournoyant · French

tournoyant · rank #77,095 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #77,095
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tondus

Nearest frequency peer: tondus (-2 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 « tournoyant »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tournoyant
PropertyValue
Headwordtournoyant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\tuʁ.nwa.jɑ̃\
Letters10
Frequency rank#77,095
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tournoyant » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).tournoyanttombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « tondus » (#77,093), « traiterai » (#77,097), « Titicaca » (#77,092). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tournoyant » est au #77,095. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tournoyant is uncommon French at frequency #77,095 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \tuʁ.nwa.jɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui tournoie.".

Zero misspellings are on record for tournoyant in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 tournoyant, spelled T-O-U-R-N-O-Y-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui tournoie.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. …, elle se trouva en présence d’une vieille sibylle qui grommelait un chant saxon, comme pour battre la mesure de la danse tournoyante que traçait son fuseau.
  2. À les voir pressés, tournoyants et fondus dans une étreinte où les chairs, malgré leurs vêtements, se collaient aux chairs, on s’imaginait la seule divinité de l’amour en deux personnes, l’individu complet dont parlent les récits fabuleux des brahmanes, deux sexes distincts en un unique monstre.

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 "tournoyant"?
"tournoyant" is spelled T-O-U-R-N-O-Y-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \tuʁ.nwa.jɑ̃\.
What does "tournoyant" mean?
As an adjective, "tournoyant" means: Qui tournoie.
How do you pronounce "tournoyant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tournoyant" is \tuʁ.nwa.jɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tournoyant" come from?
"tournoyant" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tournoyant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list