atonal

\a.tɔ.nal\

/\a.tɔ.nal\/ adj

The verdict

“atonal” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
6
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui utilise toutes les ressources de la gamme chromatique, tonale ou modale en écartant toute notion d’échelle.

Corpus desk

Index FR-atonal · atonal · French

atonal · 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 "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for atonal
PropertyValue
Headwordatonal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\a.tɔ.nal\
Letters6
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « atonal » en français

atonalreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

atonal is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \a.tɔ.nal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui utilise toutes les ressources de la gamme chromatique, tonale ou modale en écartant toute notion d’échelle.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for atonal, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is atonal, spelled A-T-O-N-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui utilise toutes les ressources de la gamme chromatique, tonale ou modale en écartant toute notion d’échelle.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Pour dignes d'intérêt qu'elles soient, les expériences de musique concrète n'ont toutefois aucune affinité avec une musique quelconque, fut-elle polyphonique, atonale ou dodécaphonique, ….
  2. Quelques années plus tard, Le Paradis du Cœur servit de trame à une œuvre musicale d’Egon, laquelle tomba d’ailleurs à plat, l’heure de la musique atonale n’ayant pas encore sonné.

Synonyms

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "atonal"?
"atonal" is spelled A-T-O-N-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \a.tɔ.nal\.
What does "atonal" mean?
As an adjective, "atonal" means: Qui utilise toutes les ressources de la gamme chromatique, tonale ou modale en écartant toute notion d’échelle.
How do you pronounce "atonal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "atonal" is \a.tɔ.nal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "atonal" come from?
"atonal" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list