colossal

\kɔ.lɔ.sal\

/\kɔ.lɔ.sal\/ adj

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

The verdict

“colossal” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #24,521. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#24,521
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - De la taille d’un colosse ; très grand ; énorme.

Corpus desk

Index FR-colossal · colossal · French

colossal · rank #24,521 · 10 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #24,521
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH coincer

Nearest frequency peer: coincer (-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 « colossal »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « colossal » 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).

colossal vs colosse
75% similar
colossal vs colossale
89% similar
colossal vs colossaux
78% similar

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

Key facts for colossal
PropertyValue
Headwordcolossal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\kɔ.lɔ.sal\
Letters8
Frequency rank#24,521
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « colossal »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).colossalse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « coincer » (#24,520), « commanditaire » (#24,522), « codage » (#24,519). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « colossal » est au #24,521. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around colossal (IPA \kɔ.lɔ.sal\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #24,521 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Dominant gloss: "De la taille d’un colosse ; très grand ; énorme.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for colossal, with forms such as "ccolossal", "cloossal", and "collossal". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "colosse", "colossale", "colossaux", 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 its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is colossal, spelled C-O-L-O-S-S-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    De la taille d’un colosse ; très grand ; énorme.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Bakounine était d’une colossale stature, encore que son embonpoint fût évidemment dû à sa maladie.
  2. Une colossale figure du « Temps », soulève Terre et cadran sur ses vigoureuses épaules.

This word in other languages

colossal(English)colosal(Español)kolossal(Deutsch)colossal(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccolossal
  • cloossal
  • collossal
  • colosal
  • colosasl
  • colossall
  • colossla
  • colsosal
  • coolssal
  • oclossal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

ccolossal1cloossal2collossal1colosal1colosasl2colossall1colossla2colsosal2
Edit distance from "colossal"

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 "colossal"?
"colossal" is spelled C-O-L-O-S-S-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ.lɔ.sal\.
What does "colossal" mean?
As an adjective, "colossal" means: De la taille d’un colosse ; très grand ; énorme.
What words are commonly confused with "colossal"?
"colossal" is commonly confused with "colosse", "colossale", "colossaux". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "colossal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "colossal" is \kɔ.lɔ.sal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "colossal" come from?
"colossal" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "colossal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

censurer#24,512Cracovie#24,532canettes#24,509crevette#24,533

Similar misspelling depth

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

coincer10 variantscloison10 variantscompote10 variantscandide10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list