French · France · Belgium · Switzerland

bordel

/bɔʁ.dɛl/

Listen to how locals say it.

This entry covers bordel, an expression in French as used in France · Belgium · Switzerland.

Machine translation Some text on this page is machine-translated and has not been reviewed yet.

Regional scope This entry describes use in 3 of the 4 countries recorded for this language, chiefly France. It does not describe the whole language area.

Contents

Meaning

A brothel; colloquially “a bloody mess”, and as an interjection roughly “bloody hell!”.^[1]^[2]Machine-assisted translation

Pronunciation

IPA: /bɔʁ.dɛl/

“bor-DEL”.^[1]^[2]

Intensity

SWEAR LEVEL

Rated in-culture by native reviewers, on three separate axes.

VulgarityVery Strong

Assessed as how taboo the word itself is inside its own culture.

AggressivenessRude

Assessed at the most aggressive natural use aimed at a person.

Social riskRude

Assessed as what the speaker risks when saying it to a stranger on the street.

How common

Social Risk

Assessed social risk by setting.

With friendsLow risk
At schoolBest avoided
At workContext-dependentFine in a meeting in the sense of “a mess”, avoided as an exclamation.
On the streetLow risk
OnlineLow risk

Low risk
Context-dependent
Best avoided

Shape and colour encode the same value.

Verification

Content review: Not verified yet
Translation: Machine-translated, review pending
Sources last checked: 2026-08-28

Not verified yetWaiting for native review

Published after an automated pre-check. No native reviewer has confirmed it yet.

A correction desk opens once native review starts. Until then this page records what the sources say.

How it's used

The “mess” sense is near-neutral in speech; the bare interjection is squarely vulgar. Often stacked as “putain de bordel”.^[1]^[2]Machine-assisted translation

Cultural context

Wiktionary separates the informal “brothel” noun, the colloquial “bloody mess” sense and the vulgar interjection.^[1]^[2]Machine-assisted translation

Literal meaning

brothel^[1]^[2]

When to avoid it

Situations in which the expression is generally best avoided.

At school — Best avoided
At work — Context-dependent. Fine in a meeting in the sense of “a mess”, avoided as an exclamation.

Sources

Every claim on this page traces back to these entries.

↑Meaning ↑Pronunciation ↑How it's used ↑Cultural context ↑Literal meaning bordel — English Wiktionary (French)Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · summarised and translated here · accessed 2026-08-28
↑Meaning ↑Pronunciation ↑How it's used ↑Cultural context ↑Literal meaning bordel — Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary)Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · summarised and translated here · accessed 2026-08-28

Passages derived from these dictionary entries are redistributed under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.