caramel

/\ka.ʁa.mɛl\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#13,531

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

9

similar word pairs

caramel is aFrenchnoun. It 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. Pronounced \ka.ʁa.mɛl\. Often confused with crame and carmen.

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)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of caramel in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for caramel is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ka.ʁa.mɛl\. Corpus data places it at rank #13,531 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for caramel, with forms such as "acramel", "caarmel", and "caraeml". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.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 explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is caramel, spelled C-A-R-A-M-E-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

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.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: acramel,caarmel,caraeml,caramell,caramle,carammel,carmael,carramel,ccaramel,craamel

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for caramel

Misspelling Variants of "caramel"

acramel7caarmel7caraeml7caramell8caramle7carammel8carmael7carramel8
Misspelling Variants of "caramel"

Frequency rank: #13,531 in French

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 covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.