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PlainSpell

fundamental

fun·da·men·tal/ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/noun, adjective

fundamental is spelled F-U-N-D-A-M-E-N-T-A-L, 4 syllables: fun·da·men·tal. The wrong spelling people search most is fundametal: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 286 of all searches for the word. Fundamental is a noun meaning “A basic truth, elementary concept, principle, rule, or law. An individual fundamental will often serve as a…”. The plural of fundamental is fundamentals.

How many letters and syllables are in fundamental?

Letters11: F-U-N-D-A-M-E-N-T-A-L
Syllables4: fun·da·men·tal
In writing21 times per million words; the 4,076th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, fundametal, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell fundamental?

Fundamental is spelled F-U-N-D-A-M-E-N-T-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 287 of the searches for fundamental in either form.

fundamentalthe right spelling2,860 searches a month
fundametala missing n10 searches a month

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 fundamental?

Fundamental appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th 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 fundamental?

  • US /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/
  • US [fʌn.dəˈmɛn.tɫ̩]
  • Australia /ˌfɐn.dəˈmen.təl/

Fundamental has 4 syllables, split fun·da·men·tal in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fundamental.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with fundamental?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as fundamental from its last stressed vowel (/ɛntəl/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of fundamental

  • fundamentals plural
  • more fundamental comparative
  • most fundamental superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fundamental mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A basic truth, elementary concept, principle, rule, or law. An individual fundamental will often serve as a building block used to form a complex idea.

  2. 2

    A collection of essential component ideas that are often grouped together to serve as the foundational basis of a complex idea.

    one of the fundamentals of linear algebra

  3. 3

    The lowest frequency of a periodic waveform.

  4. 4

    The lowest partial of a complex tone.

adjective

  1. 1

    Related to a foundation, base, or basis; serving as a foundation.

  2. 2

    Essential; extremely important.

    a fundamental truth; a fundamental axiom; a fundamental element; fundamental principle; fundamental law

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fundamental in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfondement (a leading or primary principle, rule, law, or…), fondamental (pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving…)
GermanGrundlage (a leading or primary principle, rule, law, or…), grundlegend, fundamental, grundsätzlich (pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving…)
Portuguesefundamento (a leading or primary principle, rule, law, or…), fundamental (pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving…)
Spanishfundamental, cimental (pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving…)

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 fundamental come from?

From Middle English foundamental, fundamental, from Late Latin fundāmentālis, from Latin fundāmentum (“foundation”), from fundō (“to lay the foundation (of something), to found”), from fundus (“bottom”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn. By surface analysis, fundament + -al.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after fundamental