tour

English Online Dictionary. What means tour‎? What does tour mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (without the pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /tʊə(ɹ)/
  • (pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /tɔː(ɹ)/
• (US, Canada)
  • IPA^(key): (pour–poor merger) /tɔɹ/; (without the pour–poor merger) /tʊɚ/, /tʊɹ/
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /tʉːɹ/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /tuːɹ/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /tʉːə/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ), -ʊə(ɹ)
• Homophones: ; tore (pour–poor merger), tor (pour–poor merger, horse–hoarse merger); taw (pour–poor merger, horse–hoarse merger, non-rhotic)

Etymology 1

From Old French tour, tourn, from the verb torner, tourner.

Noun

tour (plural tours)

1. A journey through a particular building, estate, country, etc.

2. A guided visit to a particular place, or virtual place.

4. A journey through a given list of places, such as by an entertainer performing concerts.

5. (sports, chiefly cricket and rugby) A trip taken to another country in which several matches are played.
6. (sports, cycling) A street and road race, frequently multiday.
7. (sports) A set of competitions which make up a championship.
8. (military) A tour of duty.
9. (graph theory) A closed trail.
10. (obsolete) A going round; a circuit.
11. (obsolete) A turn; a revolution.
12. (snooker) A circuit of snooker tournaments

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

tour (third-person singular simple present tours, present participle touring, simple past and past participle toured)

1. (intransitive) To make a journey

2. (transitive) To make a circuit of a place

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French tor, French tour (“tower”).

Noun

tour (plural tours)

1. (dated) A tower.

Etymology 3

See toot.

Verb

tour (third-person singular simple present tours, present participle touring, simple past and past participle toured)

1. (obsolete) To toot a horn.

References

• “tour”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• rout, trou

Breton

Noun

tour

1. Hard mutation of dour.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French tour.

Pronunciation

Noun

tour m (plural tours, diminutive tourtje n)

1. tour

Synonyms

• rondreis

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tuʁ/
• ("un tour")
• Rhymes: -uʁ

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French tor, from Latin turrem, from Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis), τύρσις (túrsis).

Noun

tour f (plural tours)

1. tower

   La tour de Pise est penchée. ― The Tower of Pisa is leaning.

2. (chess) rook
3. apartment building

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Breton: tour
• → Russian: тура́ (turá)
• → Ukrainian: тура́ (turá)

Etymology 2

Deverbal Old French torner, tourner. Related to Etymology 3.

Noun

tour m (plural tours)

1. turn, circumference
2. go, turn
3. walk, stroll
4. round, stage (of a competition)
5. trick (e.g. magic trick, card trick)

6. ride
7. lap (of a race)

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Russian: тур (tur)
• → Spanish: tour
• → Turkish: tur
• → Ukrainian: тур (tur)

Etymology 3

From Latin tornus. Related to Etymology 2.

Noun

tour m (plural tours)

1. lathe
2. potter’s wheel

Derived terms

• tour de potier
• tour d'abandon
• tour du poteau

See also

Further reading

• “tour”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• “tour” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.

Anagrams

• trou

Middle English

Alternative forms

• thour, tor, tore, toure, towere, towour, tur

Etymology

From Old English tūr, tor, torr, from Latin turris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tuːr/

Noun

tour (plural toures)

1. tower

Descendants

• English: tower (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: tour, towr
• Yola: toweare

References

• “tǒur, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French tour.

Pronunciation

Noun

tour m (plural tours)

1. tour (guided visit)
2. tour (journey through a given list of places)

Related terms

Further reading

• “tour”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “tour”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tur/

Etymology 1

Noun

tour (plural tours)

1. tour

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• towr

Noun

tour (plural tours)

1. tower

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French tour.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtuɾ/ [ˈt̪uɾ]
• Rhymes: -uɾ

Noun

tour m (plural tours)

1. tour, guided visit to a country, museum, etc.

   Synonyms: viaje, visita, excursión

2. (sports) tour, a trip to another country to play matches
3. (music) tour, a trip to other countries undertaken by a singer or musician

   Synonym: gira

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “tour”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Swedish

Noun

tour c

1. (sports) a tour (chiefly in individual ball games)

Declension

References

• tour in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tour in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tour in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)