verlan
French, noun/vɛʁ.lɑ̃/
verlan is spelled V-E-R-L-A-N (6 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written French, the 42,227th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Verlan is a French masculine noun meaning “verlan (type of backslang used in French)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Argot français consistant à inverser les syllabes ou les sons d’un mot, avec restauration phonétique et…”.
What does verlan mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineverlan (type of backslang used in French)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Argot français consistant à inverser les syllabes ou les sons d’un mot, avec restauration phonétique et graphique des « e » disparus, accompagnée de changement de timbre de ces « e ».
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 verlan
- verlans plural
- verlen
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce verlan?
- /vɛʁ.lɑ̃/
- \vɛʁ.lɑ̃\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to verlan
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is verlan in French?
verlan appears about once in every 2 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).