frontal
/ˈfɹʌn.təl/
"frontal" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“frontal” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,412 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #15,412
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front.
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 | frontal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈfɹʌn.təl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #15,412 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “frontal” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for frontal is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɹʌn.təl/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,412 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for frontal, with forms such as "ffrontal", "forntal", and "frnotal". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "fronts", "fronted", "frontman", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from New Latin frontālis, from frons (“the forehead, brow, front”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix), equivalent to front + -al; cognate of French frontal. Doublet of frontalis. The correct English form is frontal, spelled F-R-O-N-T-A-L.
Definition
- 1Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front.
- 2Of, relating to, directed toward, or situated at the front.
- 3Of or relating to the forehead or frontal bone.
- 4Parallel to the main axis of the body and at right angles to the sagittal plane.
- 5Any of the scales of a reptile that lie in the general region of the forehead, more specifically between the eyes and to the anterior of this area.
- 6Of or relating to a weather front.
Etymology
Borrowed from New Latin frontālis, from frons (“the forehead, brow, front”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix), equivalent to front + -al; cognate of French frontal. Doublet of frontalis.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffrontal,forntal,frnotal,fronatl,fronntal,frontall,frontla,fronttal,frotnal,frrontal,rfontal
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of frontal - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “frontal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-R-O-N-T-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɹʌn.təl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fronts” - see the side-by-side comparison. frontal vs fronts
- 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.