febrile
fe·brile/ˈfiːbraɪl/adjective
febrile is spelled F-E-B-R-I-L-E, 2 syllables: fe·brile. The wrong spelling people search most is ferbile: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 128 of all searches for the word. Febrile is an adjective meaning “Feverish, or having a high temperature”.
How many letters and syllables are in febrile?
| Letters | 7: F-E-B-R-I-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: fe·brile |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 49,949th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, ferbile, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell febrile?
Febrile is spelled F-E-B-R-I-L-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 129 of the searches for febrile in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is febrile?
Febrile appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 49,949th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce febrile?
- /ˈfiːbɹaɪl/
- /ˈfɛbɹaɪl/
- UK /ˈfiːbraɪl/
Febrile has 2 syllables, split fe·brile in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-febrile.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of febrile
- more febrile comparative
- most febrile superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does febrile mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Feverish, or having a high temperature.
- 2
Involving fever as a symptom or cause.
- 3
Full of nervous energy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Febrile in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense feverish:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fébrile |
| German | febril, fieberig, fiebrig, fieberhaft, fiebernd, Fieber- |
| Portuguese | febril |
| Spanish | febril |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does febrile come from?
Borrowed from Medieval Latin febrīlis, from Latin febris (“fever”). By surface analysis, Latin febr- + -ile.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).