female
/ˈfiː.meɪl/
"female" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“female” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,076 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #1,076
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Belonging to the sex which typically produces eggs (ova), or to the gender which is typically associated with it.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | female |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈfiː.meɪl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,076 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “female” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for female is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfiː.meɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,076 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for female, with forms such as "efmale", "feamle", and "femael". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "fetal", "feral", "femme", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Italic *fēmanā Latin fēmina Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin fēmella Old French femelebor. Middle English femele Middle English female English female From Middle English female, an alteration of Middle Engl… The correct English form is female, spelled F-E-M-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1Belonging to the sex which typically produces eggs (ova), or to the gender which is typically associated with it.
- 2Characteristic of this sex/gender. (Compare feminine, womanly.)
- 3Tending to lead to or regulate the development of sexual characteristics typical of this sex.
- 4Feminine; of the feminine grammatical gender.
- 5Lacking the F factor, and able to receive DNA from another bacterium which does have this factor (a male).
- 6Having an internal socket, as in a connector or pipe fitting.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Italic *fēmanā Latin fēmina Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin fēmella Old French femelebor. Middle English femele Middle English female English female From Middle English female, an alteration of Middle English femele, from Old French femele, femelle (“female”), from Medieval Latin fēmella (“a female”), from Latin fēmella (“a girl, a young female, a young woman”), diminutive of fēmina (“a woman”). The English spelling and pronunciation were remodelled under the influence of male, which is otherwise not etymologically related. Contrast woman, which is etymologically built on man (as in, “person”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: efmale,feamle,femael,femalle,femlae,femmale,ffemale,fmeale
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of female - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “female”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-E-M-A-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfiː.meɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fetal” - see the side-by-side comparison. female vs fetal
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.