difficile
/ˈdɪ.fɪ.saɪl/
"difficile" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“difficile” is uncommon English (frequency #58,640 among 26,416 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,640
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Hard to work with; stubborn.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | difficile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈdɪ.fɪ.saɪl/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #58,640 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “difficile” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
difficile is uncommon English at frequency #58,640 among 26,416 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈdɪ.fɪ.saɪl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
difficile has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From late Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis, from dis- + facilis (“easy”). The correct English form is difficile, spelled D-I-F-F-I-C-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1Hard to work with; stubborn.
- 2Difficult.
Etymology
From late Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis, from dis- + facilis (“easy”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “difficile”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-F-F-I-C-I-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɪ.fɪ.saɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.