céphalée

\se.fa.le\

/\se.fa.le\/ noun

The verdict

“céphalée” is uncommon French (frequency #83,757 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#83,757
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mal de tête, violent et opiniâtre, parfois périodique.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cephalee · céphalée · French

céphalée · rank #83,757 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #83,757
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH céladon

Nearest frequency peer: céladon (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « céphalée »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « céphalée » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for céphalée
PropertyValue
Headwordcéphalée
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\se.fa.le\
Letters8
Frequency rank#83,757
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « céphalée » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).céphaléetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « céladon » (#83,756), « céramistes » (#83,758), « cytochrome » (#83,755). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « céphalée » est au #83,757. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

céphalée is uncommon French at frequency #83,757 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \se.fa.le\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for céphalée, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is céphalée, spelled C-É-P-H-A-L-É-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mal de tête, violent et opiniâtre, parfois périodique.
  2. 2
    Céphalalgie chronique.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Vers onze heures, le malade fait 39 degrés avec violent frisson durant vingt minutes environ, avec céphalée violente et sudation abondante.
  2. Seront plus précisément abordés la fréquence et la durée des céphalées, les facteurs déclenchants, les symptômes, la sévérité de la douleur et l’impact sur la vie quotidienne.

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 "céphalée"?
"céphalée" is spelled C-É-P-H-A-L-É-E. The IPA pronunciation is \se.fa.le\.
What does "céphalée" mean?
As a noun, "céphalée" means: Mal de tête, violent et opiniâtre, parfois périodique.
How do you pronounce "céphalée"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "céphalée" is \se.fa.le\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "céphalée" come from?
"céphalée" 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 "céphalée", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list