affaler

\a.fa.le\

/\a.fa.le\/ verb

The verdict

“affaler” is uncommon French (frequency #88,282 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#88,282
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Abaisser un cordage pour l’aider à courir dans sa poulie ou dans son conduit et à descendre plus facilement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-affaler · affaler · French

affaler · rank #88,282 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #88,282
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH Aesa

Nearest frequency peer: Aesa (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « affaler »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « affaler » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for affaler
PropertyValue
Headwordaffaler
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\a.fa.le\
Letters7
Frequency rank#88,282
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « affaler » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).affalertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Aesa » (#88,281), « affecteront » (#88,283), « affinent » (#88,284). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « affaler » est au #88,282. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

affaler is uncommon French at frequency #88,282 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \a.fa.le\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

affaler has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is affaler, spelled A-F-F-A-L-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Abaisser un cordage pour l’aider à courir dans sa poulie ou dans son conduit et à descendre plus facilement.
  2. 2
    Abaisser une voile.
  3. 3
    Pousser un bâtiment, un navire vers la côte, en parlant du vent, et le mettre en danger d’échouer.
  4. 4
    Se laisser glisser le long d’un cordage, etc., pour descendre plus vite.
  5. 5
    Se laisser tomber, se vautrer ou, simplement, tomber.
  6. 6
    Réduire fortement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Affaler une manœuvre.
  2. L’équipage affala la misaine.

Antonyms

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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "affaler"?
"affaler" is spelled A-F-F-A-L-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \a.fa.le\.
What does "affaler" mean?
As a verb, "affaler" means: Abaisser un cordage pour l’aider à courir dans sa poulie ou dans son conduit et à descendre plus facilement.
How do you pronounce "affaler"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "affaler" is \a.fa.le\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "affaler" come from?
"affaler" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list