tour de force

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French tour de force (“feat of strength”), circa 19th century.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌtuɹ.dəˈfoɹs/, /ˌtuɹ.dəˈfɔɹs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

tour de force (plural tours de force)

1. A feat demonstrating brilliance or mastery in a field.

   Now orbiting Earth, Gravity Probe B is a technological tour de force.

   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 429:

     Much as I admire Wilson’s tour de force—I wish people would read it more and read about it less—my hackles have always risen at the entirely false suggestion that his book influenced mine.

Related terms

• tour d'horizon

Translations

Feat demonstrating brilliance or mastery in a field — see also feat,‎ prowess

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絕技 / 绝技 (zh) (juéjì)

• Dutch: tour de force m, krachttoer (nl) m, huzarenstuk (nl) n, krachtdaad c
• Estonian: jõudemonstratsioon
• Finnish: voimannäyte, taidonnäyte, loistosuoritus (fi)
• French: exploit (fr) m, tour de force (fr) m
• Greek: κατόρθωμα (el) n (katórthoma)
• Spanish: tour de force (es) m
• Yoruba: àrà

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: Meisterstück (de)

See also

• coup de force

Dutch

Noun

tour de force m (plural tours de force, no diminutive)

1. exploit, tour de force

Synonyms

• huzarenstuk
• krachtdaad
• krachttoer

French

Etymology

Literally, “turn of strength”, or more loosely translated as “turn of force”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tuʁ də fɔʁs/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

tour de force m (plural tours de force)

1. tour de force

Descendants

• → Dutch: krachttoer (calque)

German

Noun

tour de force f (genitive tour de force, plural tours de force)

1. alternative spelling of Tour de Force

Declension

Declension of tour de force [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	tour de force	die	tours de force
genitive	einer	der	tour de force	der	tours de force
dative	einer	der	tour de force	den	tours de force
accusative	eine	die	tour de force	die	tours de force

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French tour de force.

Noun phrase

tour de force m (plural tours de force)

1. (literary) tour de force

Further reading

• “tour de force”, 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
• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “tour de force”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA