female
/ˈfiː.meɪl/
"female" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“female” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,076. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,076
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Belonging to the sex which typically produces eggs (ova), or to the gender which is typically associated with it.
Corpus desk
Index EN-female · female · English
female · rank #1,076 · 8 variants · 9 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,076
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH despite
Nearest frequency peer: despite (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “female”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- cross
cross
98,928 corpus weight
- described
described
98,927 corpus weight
- despite
despite
98,926 corpus weight
- female
female
98,925 corpus weight
- focus
focus
98,924 corpus weight
- g
g
98,923 corpus weight
What this shows “female” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “female”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around female (IPA /ˈfiː.meɪl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,076 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how female appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
female authors, the leading male and female artists, a female bird cooing at a male
Twice in her thirty-year career she held office in the blacksmiths' guild. Ms. [Fya] upper Bach was no fluke, either: legal and guild records from medieval Germany list other female blacksmiths, coppersmiths, tinsmiths, and pewterers. Some of these redoubtable women gained entry into the guild through "widow's rights"; others, however, made it on sheer me…
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "female", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).