tour

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /tɔː(ɹ)/
  • (without the pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /tʊə(ɹ)/
• (General American, Canada)
  • (without the pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /tʊɚ/, /tʊɹ/
  • (pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /tɔɹ/

  • Audio; /tʊɚ/:

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• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /tʉːɹ/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /tuːɹ/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /tʉːə/

  • Audio (General Australian); /tʉːə/:

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• 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)

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

tour (plural tours)

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

   On our last holiday to Spain we took a tour of the wine-growing regions.

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

   On the company's website, you can take a virtual tour of the headquarters.

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

   Metallica's tour of Europe

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.
   • 2022 September 21, Carly Olson, Dan Bilefsky, “Ten prisoners, including Americans, have been released as part of a Russia-Ukraine exchange, Saudi Arabia says.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Among those released were two Americans who had been held captive for more than three months: Alex Drueke, a former U.S. Army staff sergeant who served two tours in Iraq, according to his aunt, Dianna Shaw; […]

9. (graph theory) A closed trail.
10. (obsolete) A going round; a circuit.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

      The Bird of Jove, stoopt from his aerie tour,

11. (obsolete) A turn; a revolution.

    the tours of the heavenly bodies

    • 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation:

      It [blood] onward springs, and makes the wondrous tour

12. (snooker) A circuit of snooker tournaments

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

1. (intransitive) To make a journey

   The Rolling Stones were still touring when they were in their seventies.

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

   The circuses have been touring Europe for the last few weeks.

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

tour (plural tours)

1. (dated) A tower.

See toot.

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

1. (obsolete) To toot a horn.

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

• rout, trou

tour

1. hard mutation of dour

Borrowed from French tour.

• Audio:

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tour m (plural tours, diminutive tourtje n)

1. tour

• rondreis

• IPA^(key): /tuʁ/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Paris)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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  ("un tour")

• Audio (France (Somain)):

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• Rhymes: -uʁ

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

tour f (plural tours)

1. tower

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

2. (chess) rook
3. apartment building

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

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

tour m (plural tours)

1. turn, circumference
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[2], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères:

     L'univers, pour lui, n'excédait pas le tour soyeux de son jupon; et il se reprochait de ne pas l'aimer, il avait envie de la revoir; il s'en revenait vite, montait l'escalier; le coeur battant.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

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

   La magicienne a épaté le public avec ses tours.

   The magician wowed the audience with her tricks.

6. ride
7. lap (of a race)

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

From Latin tornus. Related to Etymology 2.

tour m (plural tours)

1. lathe
2. potter’s wheel

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

Chess pieces in French · pièces d'échecs (layout · text)
roi	dame	tour	fou	cavalier	pion

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

• trou

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

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

• IPA^(key): /tuːr/

tour (plural toures)

1. tower

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

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

Unadapted borrowing from French tour.

tour m (plural tours)

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

• “tour”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “tour”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “tour”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): /tur/

tour (plural tours)

1. tour

• towr

tour (plural tours)

1. tower

Unadapted borrowing from French tour.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtuɾ/ [ˈt̪uɾ]
  • Rhymes: -uɾ
• IPA^(key): /ˈtouɾ/ [ˈt̪ou̯ɾ]
  • Rhymes: -ouɾ
  • Syllabification: tour

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

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.

• “tour”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

tour c

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

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