colonel
\kɔ.lɔ.nɛl\
The verdict
“colonel” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,562. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #2,562
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Du chef militaire.
Corpus desk
Index FR-colonel · colonel · French
colonel · rank #2,562 · 10 variants · 17 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #2,562
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 17 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH collaboration
Nearest frequency peer: collaboration (-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 « colonel »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- chacune
chacune
97,442 corpus weight
- Christ
Christ
97,441 corpus weight
- collaborati…
collaboration
97,440 corpus weight
- colonel
colonel
97,439 corpus weight
- commis
commis
97,438 corpus weight
- composition
composition
97,437 corpus weight
What this shows « colonel » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | colonel |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \kɔ.lɔ.nɛl\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #2,562 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « colonel »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around colonel (IPA \kɔ.lɔ.nɛl\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #2,562 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for colonel, with forms such as "ccolonel", "cloonel", and "collonel". 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 17 confusable-pair relationships, "colons", "coloré", "colonne", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is colonel, spelled C-O-L-O-N-E-L.
Definition
- 1Du chef militaire.
- 2Qui manifeste l'autorité propre à un colonel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how colonel appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les lignes qui campent en colonnes renversées doivent avoir leur drapeau colonel sur la gauche.
Mais, il faut l’avouer, rien de tranchant dans les manières, point du tout l’air colonel du Gymnase, encore moins les tons d’importance et de hauteur calculées d’un jeune attaché d’ambassade.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccolonel
- cloonel
- collonel
- colnoel
- coloenl
- colonell
- colonle
- colonnel
- coolnel
- oclonel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of colonel - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "colonel"?
What does "colonel" mean?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "colonel", 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).