Standard Lemma guide

troubadour

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈtruːbəˌdɔː/
  • General-American: /ˈtrubəˌdɔr/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: T R UW1 B AH0 D AO2 R Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An itinerant composer and performer of songs in medieval Europe; a jongleur or travelling minstrel.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a singer of folk songs

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: folk singer, jongleur, minstrel, poet-singer

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: singer, vocalist, vocalizer, vocaliser

Narrower terms: Guthrie, Woody Guthrie, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, Seeger, Pete Seeger, Peter Seeger

History

Etymology

From Old Occitan trobar (“to find”) via Old French troubadour. Piecewise doublet of trouveur.

Across languages

Translations

53 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تْرُوبَادُور (trūbādūr) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Armenian: տրուբադուր (trubadur) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Belarusian: трубаду́р (trubadúr) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Bulgarian: трубаду́р (trubadúr) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Catalan: trobador — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Catalan: trobadora — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Chinese Mandarin: 吟遊詩人 /吟游诗人 (yínyóu shīrén) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Crimean Tatar: aşıq — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Czech: trubadúr — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Danish: trubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Dutch: troubadour — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Esperanto: trobadoro — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Finnish: trubaduuri — an itinerant performer of songs
  • French: troubadour — an itinerant performer of songs
  • French: trouvère — an itinerant performer of songs
  • French: trobairitz — an itinerant performer of songs
  • French: troubadouresse — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Galician: troveiro — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Galician: troveira — an itinerant performer of songs
  • German: Troubadour — an itinerant performer of songs
  • German: Trobador — an itinerant performer of songs
  • German: Troubairitz — an itinerant performer of songs
  • German: Trobairitz — an itinerant performer of songs
  • German: Troubadourin — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Greek: τροβαδούρος (trovadoúros) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Hungarian: trubadúr — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Italian: trovatore — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Italian: trobadore — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Italian: trovatrice — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Italian: trobairitz — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Japanese: 吟遊詩人 (gin'yū shijin) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Japanese: トルバドゥール (torubadūru) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Korean: 음유시인 (eumyusiin) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Korean: 트루바두르 (teurubadureu) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Latin: tropātor — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Macedonian: трубаду́р (trubadúr) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Marathi: ट्रुबाडूर (ṭrubāḍūr) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Polish: trubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Portuguese: trovador — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Romanian: trubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Russian: трубаду́р (trubadúr) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Serbo-Croatian: труба̀дӯр — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Serbo-Croatian: trubàdūr — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Slovak: trubadúr — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Slovene: trubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Spanish: trovador — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Spanish: trovadora — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Swedish: trubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Tarifit: amedyaz — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Ukrainian: трубаду́р (trubadúr) — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Volapük: trubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Volapük: hitrubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
  • Volapük: jitrubadur — an itinerant performer of songs
Real reading context

troubadour in complete knowledge articles