chacal

\ʃa.kal\

/\ʃa.kal\/ noun

The verdict

“chacal” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #32,336. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#32,336
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
14
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Canidé carnivore d’Afrique et d’Asie, de taille moyenne ou petite.

Corpus desk

Index FR-chacal · chacal · French

chacal · rank #32,336 · 9 variants · 14 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #32,336
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 14 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cendrier

Nearest frequency peer: cendrier (-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 « chacal »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « chacal » 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).

chacal vs Chara
50% similar
chacal vs chacun
67% similar
chacal vs cheval
67% similar

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

Key facts for chacal
PropertyValue
Headwordchacal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʃa.kal\
Letters6
Frequency rank#32,336
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs14
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « chacal »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.chacalse 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 « cendrier » (#32,335), « chauffard » (#32,337), « cherchée » (#32,338). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « chacal » est au #32,336. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around chacal (IPA \ʃa.kal\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,336 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for chacal, with forms such as "cahcal", "cchacal", and "chaacl". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "Chara", "chacun", "cheval", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 chacal, spelled C-H-A-C-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Canidé carnivore d’Afrique et d’Asie, de taille moyenne ou petite.
  2. 2
    Personne sournoise et opportuniste.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Car la région que nous traversons est assez giboyeuse, et les grands nemrods de la m'halla, […], qui ont emmené des meutes de lévriers et des faucons chasseurs, font des hécatombes de lièvres, de perdrix, de poules de Carthage, de renards et de chacals.
  2. Au fond de la vallée de l’Oued Mia, un chacal aboie.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cahcal
  • cchacal
  • chaacl
  • chacall
  • chaccal
  • chacla
  • chcaal
  • chhacal
  • hcacal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

cahcal2cchacal1chaacl2chacall1chaccal1chacla2chcaal2chhacal1
Edit distance from "chacal"

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 "chacal"?
"chacal" is spelled C-H-A-C-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃa.kal\.
What does "chacal" mean?
As a noun, "chacal" means: Canidé carnivore d’Afrique et d’Asie, de taille moyenne ou petite.
What words are commonly confused with "chacal"?
"chacal" is commonly confused with "Chara", "chacun", "cheval". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "chacal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "chacal" is \ʃa.kal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "chacal" come from?
"chacal" 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 "chacal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list