caramel

\ka.ʁa.mɛl\

/\ka.ʁa.mɛl\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“caramel” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #13,531. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#13,531
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Produit brun, solide ou liquide, utilisé en pâtisserie et en confiserie, ou comme colorant, qui s’obtient en faisant brunir du sucre en le faisant chauffer.

Corpus desk

Index FR-caramel · caramel · French

caramel · rank #13,531 · 10 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #13,531
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH caractérisée

Nearest frequency peer: caractérisée (-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 « caramel »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « caramel » 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).

caramel vs crame
71% similar
caramel vs carmen
71% similar
caramel vs cartel
71% similar

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

Key facts for caramel
PropertyValue
Headwordcaramel
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ka.ʁa.mɛl\
Letters7
Frequency rank#13,531
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « caramel »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).caramelse 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 « caractérisée » (#13,530), « cargo » (#13,532), « carotte » (#13,533). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « caramel » est au #13,531. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around caramel (IPA \ka.ʁa.mɛl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #13,531 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for caramel, with forms such as "acramel", "caarmel", and "caraeml". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "crame", "carmen", "cartel", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 caramel, spelled C-A-R-A-M-E-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Produit brun, solide ou liquide, utilisé en pâtisserie et en confiserie, ou comme colorant, qui s’obtient en faisant brunir du sucre en le faisant chauffer.
  2. 2
    Bonbon fabriqué à partir de sucre et de lait, au goût de caramel et de couleur caramel.
  3. 3
    Brun clair, qui rappelle la couleur du caramel. #B67233
  4. 4
    Plaquage violent ou spectaculaire.
  5. 5
    Nom donné aux jetons par les scrabbleurs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les mélasses, dont on extrait encore du sucre blanc […] servent aussi à la fabrication du caramel ; souvent même on les utilise en guise de sucre.
  2. Une fois débarrassé de son papier, le pirouli avait une couleur brune flamboyante et mordorée, irisée de bulles d'air. Le caramel était si translucide qu'on pouvait l'utiliser comme des lunettes ou une lentille pour regarder au travers […].

This word in other languages

caramel(English)caramelo(Español)Karamell(Deutsch)caramelo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acramel
  • caarmel
  • caraeml
  • caramell
  • caramle
  • carammel
  • carmael
  • carramel
  • ccaramel
  • craamel

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of caramel - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

acramel2caarmel2caraeml2caramell1caramle2carammel1carmael2carramel1
Edit distance from "caramel"

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 "caramel"?
"caramel" is spelled C-A-R-A-M-E-L. The IPA pronunciation is \ka.ʁa.mɛl\.
What does "caramel" mean?
As a noun, "caramel" means: Produit brun, solide ou liquide, utilisé en pâtisserie et en confiserie, ou comme colorant, qui s’obtient en faisant brunir du sucre en le faisant chauffer.
What words are commonly confused with "caramel"?
"caramel" is commonly confused with "crame", "carmen", "cartel". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "caramel"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "caramel" is \ka.ʁa.mɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "caramel" come from?
"caramel" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "caramel", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

carotte#13,533chèvres#13,540classic#13,542baroque#13,519

Similar misspelling depth

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

barbier10 variantsarrêtait10 variantsagresser10 variantscroquis10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list