criminel

\kʁi.mi.nɛl\

/\kʁi.mi.nɛl\/ adj

The verdict

“criminel” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,479. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,479
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est coupable d’un crime, de crimes.

Corpus desk

Index FR-criminel · criminel · French

criminel · rank #4,479 · 12 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,479
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH crier

Nearest frequency peer: crier (-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 « criminel »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « criminel » 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).

criminel vs criminels
89% similar
criminel vs criminelle
80% similar
criminel vs criminelles
73% similar

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

Key facts for criminel
PropertyValue
Headwordcriminel
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\kʁi.mi.nɛl\
Letters8
Frequency rank#4,479
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « criminel »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).criminelse 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 « crier » (#4,478), « césar » (#4,480), « craint » (#4,477). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « criminel » est au #4,479. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around criminel (IPA \kʁi.mi.nɛl\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #4,479 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for criminel, with forms such as "ccriminel", "cirminel", and "criimnel". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "criminels", "criminelle", "criminelles", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

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 criminel, spelled C-R-I-M-I-N-E-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est coupable d’un crime, de crimes.
  2. 2
    Condamnable, illicite.
  3. 3
    Qui appartient à une personne criminelle, ou qui conçoit des pensées criminelles.
  4. 4
    Qualifie la législation qui concerne les crimes et tout ce qui regarde la procédure qu’on fait contre les personnes accusées de crime.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ô phrénologues ! L’inéducabilité érigée en principe ? quel inhominalisme ! La sublime créature est éducable, voyante et libre, criminelle ou vertueuse à son choix, responsable.
  2. Quelle main criminelle avait accompli cette sinistre besogne ? Et à qui en voulait l'incendiaire ?

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccriminel
  • cirminel
  • criimnel
  • crimienl
  • criminell
  • criminle
  • criminnel
  • crimminel
  • crimniel
  • crmiinel
  • crriminel
  • rciminel

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

ccriminel1cirminel2criimnel2crimienl2criminell1criminle2criminnel1crimminel1
Edit distance from "criminel"

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 "criminel"?
"criminel" is spelled C-R-I-M-I-N-E-L. The IPA pronunciation is \kʁi.mi.nɛl\.
What does "criminel" mean?
As an adjective, "criminel" means: Qui est coupable d’un crime, de crimes.
What words are commonly confused with "criminel"?
"criminel" is commonly confused with "criminels", "criminelle", "criminelles". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "criminel"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "criminel" is \kʁi.mi.nɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "criminel" come from?
"criminel" 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 "criminel", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list