deadly

\ˈdɛd.li\

/\ˈdɛd.li\/ adj

The verdict

“deadly” is uncommon French (frequency #77,411 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#77,411
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Meurtrier, mortel.

Corpus desk

Index FR-deadly · deadly · French

deadly · rank #77,411 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #77,411
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH DDD

Nearest frequency peer: DDD (-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 « deadly »

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 « deadly » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for deadly
PropertyValue
Headworddeadly
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ˈdɛd.li\
Letters6
Frequency rank#77,411
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « deadly » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).deadlytombe 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: « DDD » (#77,410), « deeds » (#77,412), « datura » (#77,409). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « deadly » est au #77,411. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

deadly is uncommon French at frequency #77,411 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ˈdɛd.li\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Meurtrier, mortel.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for deadly, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented 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 deadly, spelled D-E-A-D-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Meurtrier, mortel.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. How can I save my little boy From Oppenheimer’s deadly toy?

Synonyms

fatallethalmurderous

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 "deadly"?
"deadly" is spelled D-E-A-D-L-Y. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈdɛd.li\.
What does "deadly" mean?
As an adjective, "deadly" means: Meurtrier, mortel.
How do you pronounce "deadly"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "deadly" is \ˈdɛd.li\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "deadly" come from?
"deadly" 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 "deadly", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list