principal

/[pɾĩnsiˈpal]/ adj

Letters

9 characters

Frequency Rank

#541

in Spanish word usage

Misspellings

15

tracked variants

Confusables

5

similar word pairs

principal is anSpanishadj. It means: Primero en rango, importancia o jerarquía dentro de un conjunto. Pronounced [pɾĩnsiˈpal]. It ranks #541 in Spanish word frequency. Often confused with príncipe and principio.

Key facts for principal
PropertyValue
Headwordprincipal
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechAdj
IPA[pɾĩnsiˈpal]
Letters9
Frequency rank#541
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of principal in Spanish word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for principal is 9 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [pɾĩnsiˈpal]. Corpus data places it at rank #541 in overall Spanish word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for principal, with forms such as "pirncipal", "pprincipal", and "pricnipal". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "príncipe", "principio", "príncipes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Spanish form is principal, spelled P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Primero en rango, importancia o jerarquía dentro de un conjunto.
  2. 2
    Relativo a los aspectos necesarios e insoslayables de un asunto o cuestión.
  3. 3
    Famoso por su descollante logro o capacidad.
  4. 4
    Dicho de la edición de una obra literaria, y en especial de los clásicos, primera que se imprime luego de haber circulado la obra en manuscrito.
  5. 5
    Dicho de una oración, que es independiente sintácticamente y puede interpretarse sin necesidad de otros complementos.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: pirncipal,pprincipal,pricnipal,princcipal,princiapl,principall,principla,princippal,princpial,prinicpal,prinncipal,prinsipal,prnicipal,prrincipal,rpincipal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for principal

Misspelling Variants of "principal"

pirncipal9pprincipal10pricnipal9princcipal10princiapl9principall10principla9princippal10
Misspelling Variants of "principal"

Frequency rank: #541 in Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "principal"?
"principal" is spelled P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is [pɾĩnsiˈpal].
What does "principal" mean?
As an adj, "principal" means: Primero en rango, importancia o jerarquía dentro de un conjunto.
What words are commonly confused with "principal"?
"principal" is commonly confused with "príncipe", "principio", "príncipes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "principal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "principal" is [pɾĩnsiˈpal]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "principal" come from?
"principal" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby Spanish words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our Spanish index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.