travail

/tɹəˈveɪl/

//tɹəˈveɪl// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"travail" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“travail” is uncommon English (frequency #52,684 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#52,684
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.

Corpus desk

Index EN-travail · travail · English

travail · rank #52,684 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #52,684
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH transmembrane

Nearest frequency peer: transmembrane (-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.

Long-tail ranks near “travail”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “travail” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for travail
PropertyValue
Headwordtravail
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/tɹəˈveɪl/
Letters7
Frequency rank#52,684
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “travail” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).travailfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “transmembrane” (#52,683), “trophic” (#52,685), “tsarist” (#52,686). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “travail” is #52,684. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

travail is uncommon English at frequency #52,684 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /tɹəˈveɪl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for travail in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *tréyes ] From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), deverbal of travailler, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre, from Late Latin tripālium, from Latin tripālis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *trēs + *pāk… The correct English form is travail, spelled T-R-A-V-A-I-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
  2. 2
    Specifically, the labor of childbirth.
  3. 3
    An act of working; labor (US), labour (British).
  4. 4
    The eclipse of a celestial object.
  5. 5
    Obsolete form of travel.
  6. 6
    Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”)

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how travail appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Great trauail is created to al men, and an heauie yoke vpon the children of Adam, from the day of their comming forth of their mothers wombe, vntil the day of their burying, into the mother of al. […]
  2. But as every thing of price, so this doth require travail.

Etymology

PIE word *tréyes ] From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), deverbal of travailler, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre, from Late Latin tripālium, from Latin tripālis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *trēs + *pākslos from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-. Doublet of travel and travois.

This word in other languages

travail(Français)

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

How do you spell "travail"?
"travail" is spelled T-R-A-V-A-I-L. The IPA pronunciation is /tɹəˈveɪl/.
What does "travail" mean?
As a noun, "travail" means: Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
How do you pronounce "travail"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "travail" is /tɹəˈveɪl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "travail"?
PIE word *tréyes ] From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), deverbal of travailler, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre, from Late Latin tripālium, from Latin tripālis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *t... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "travail", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

trophic#52,685tsarist#52,686tadpole#52,665tacking#52,664

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list