capital

\ka.pi.tal\

/\ka.pi.tal\/ adj

The verdict

“capital” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,652. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,652
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est principal.

Corpus desk

Index FR-capital · capital · French

capital · rank #1,652 · 10 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,652
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH boîte

Nearest frequency peer: boîte (-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 « capital »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « capital » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

capital vs caporal
71% similar
capital vs caritas
71% similar
capital vs capitale
88% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for capital
PropertyValue
Headwordcapital
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ka.pi.tal\
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,652
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « capital »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.capitalse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « boîte » (#1,651), « certes » (#1,653), « bataille » (#1,650). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « capital » est au #1,652. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around capital (IPA \ka.pi.tal\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,652 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for capital, with forms such as "acpital", "caiptal", and "capiatl". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "caporal", "caritas", "capitale", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is capital, spelled C-A-P-I-T-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est principal.
  2. 2
    Qui a rapport à la tête.
  3. 3
    Qui est en tête.
  4. 4
    Qui est d'une très grande importance ; qui est primordial.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Aussi l’injustice est-elle le défaut capital des natures féminines. Cela vient du peu de bon sens et de réflexion que nous avons signalé, […].
  2. Ville capitale, ou elliptiquement, comme nom, capitale.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acpital
  • caiptal
  • capiatl
  • capitall
  • capitla
  • capittal
  • cappital
  • captial
  • ccapital
  • cpaital

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of capital - 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.

acpital2caiptal2capiatl2capitall1capitla2capittal1cappital1captial2
Edit distance from "capital"

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 "capital"?
"capital" is spelled C-A-P-I-T-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.pi.tal\.
What does "capital" mean?
As an adjective, "capital" means: Qui est principal.
What words are commonly confused with "capital"?
"capital" is commonly confused with "caporal", "caritas", "capitale". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "capital"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "capital" is \ka.pi.tal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "capital" come from?
"capital" 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 "capital", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list