tournure
French, noun/tuʁ.nyʁ/
tournure is spelled T-O-U-R-N-U-R-E (8 letters) and appears 4.3 times per million words in written French, the 12,541st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tournure is a French feminine noun meaning “appearance, shape, figure; bearing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Manière de tourner. de présenter les choses”.
What does tournure mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineinformalappearance, shape, figure; bearing
- 2
feminineturn, change in circumstance or temperament
- 3
femininephrasing, turn of phrase
- 4
femininetournure, bustle (frame worn underneath a woman's skirt)
- 5
datedfemininepeel (of a fruit)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Manière de tourner. de présenter les choses. 2. Tour. 3. Taille, aspect extérieur. 4. Rembourrage que les femmes portaient sous leur vêtement, afin de donner plus de volume à leur postérieur.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tournure
- tournures plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce tournure?
- /tuʁ.nyʁ/
- \tuʁ.nyʁ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to tournure
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tournure in French?
tournure appears 4.3 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).