venial
/ˈviːni.əl/
"venial" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“venial” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Able to be forgiven; worthy of forgiveness.
Corpus desk
Index EN-venial · venial · English
venial · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "V" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | venial |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈviːni.əl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “venial” in English
Rare enough to double-check
venial is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈviːni.əl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for venial in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French venial, borrowed from Late Latin veniālem (“pardonable”), from Latin venia (“forgiveness”). The correct English form is venial, spelled V-E-N-I-A-L.
Definition
- 1Able to be forgiven; worthy of forgiveness.
- 2Able to be forgiven; worthy of forgiveness.
- 3Not causing spiritual death.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how venial appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He did not say that he should favour such an attempt; But he did say that such an attempt would be venial.
His venial youthful indiscretions.
Etymology
From Old French venial, borrowed from Late Latin veniālem (“pardonable”), from Latin venia (“forgiveness”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.