canaille
\ka.naj\
The verdict
“canaille” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #33,160. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #33,160
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Vile populace.
Corpus desk
Index FR-canaille · canaille · French
canaille · rank #33,160 · 9 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-MID #33,160
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH brèches
Nearest frequency peer: brèches (-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.
Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « canaille »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- brillance
brillance
66,844 corpus weight
- broderies
broderies
66,843 corpus weight
- brèches
brèches
66,842 corpus weight
- canaille
canaille
66,841 corpus weight
- casual
casual
66,840 corpus weight
- cautionne
cautionne
66,839 corpus weight
What this shows « canaille » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | canaille |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ka.naj\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #33,160 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « canaille »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around canaille (IPA \ka.naj\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #33,160 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for canaille, with forms such as "acnaille", "caanille", and "canaile". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "castille", "cannelle", "canailles", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is canaille, spelled C-A-N-A-I-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Vile populace.
- 2Personne malhonnête et méprisable.
- 3Enfant turbulent, remuant.
- 4Peut s'employer aussi avec une connotation affectueuse (généralement dans les expressions « petite canaille » et « vieille canaille »).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how canaille appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le Philosophe Dumarsais, […] , donnait à un jeune Seigneur des leçons de Grammaire Française. Celui-ci n'entendant pas toute la fine Métaphysique de son Maître, s'impatiente & prononce avec une espèce de courroux: « Fichtre, je n'en viendrai jamais à bout ». Du Marsais lui répond du ton le plus phlegmatique: « Monsieur, ce mot n'est pas Français : on dit…
J’aurai aussi à vous parler du caractère singulier du peuple de ce pays. La canaille est ici intelligente, spirituelle, remplie d’imagination, et les classes élevées me paraissent au-dessous des habitués d’estaminet et de roulette de Paris.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- acnaille
- caanille
- canaile
- canailel
- canalile
- canialle
- cannaille
- ccanaille
- cnaaille
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of canaille - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "canaille"?
What does "canaille" mean?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "canaille", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).