funeral
/ˈfjuː.nə.ɹəl/
"funeral" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“funeral” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,810 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,810
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the body of the deceased.
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 | funeral |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfjuː.nə.ɹəl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #3,810 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “funeral” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for funeral is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfjuː.nə.ɹəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,810 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for funeral, with forms such as "ffuneral", "fnueral", and "fuenral". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "fungal", "feral", "federal", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French funerailles pl (“funeral rites”), from Medieval Latin fūnerālia (“funeral rites”), originally neuter plural of Late Latin fūnerālis (“having to do with a funeral”), from Latin fūnus (“funeral, death, corpse”), origin unknown, per… The correct English form is funeral, spelled F-U-N-E-R-A-L.
Definition
- 1A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the body of the deceased.
- 2A funeral sermon.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French funerailles pl (“funeral rites”), from Medieval Latin fūnerālia (“funeral rites”), originally neuter plural of Late Latin fūnerālis (“having to do with a funeral”), from Latin fūnus (“funeral, death, corpse”), origin unknown, perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“to die”). Singular and plural used interchangeably in English until circa 1700. The adjective funereal is first attested 1725, by influence of Middle French funerail, from Latin funereus, from funus. First attested in 1437. Displaced native Old English līcþeġnung (literally “dead body service”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffuneral,fnueral,fuenral,funearl,funerall,funerla,funerral,funneral,funreal,ufneral
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of funeral - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “funeral”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-U-N-E-R-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfjuː.nə.ɹəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fungal” - see the side-by-side comparison. funeral vs fungal
- 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.