décennal

\de.sɛ.nal\

/\de.sɛ.nal\/ adj

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

The verdict

“décennal” is uncommon French (frequency #71,449 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#71,449
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui dure dix ans ou qui revient tous les dix ans.

Corpus desk

Index FR-decennal · décennal · French

décennal · rank #71,449 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #71,449
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH déboursés

Nearest frequency peer: déboursés (-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 « décennal »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for décennal
PropertyValue
Headworddécennal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\de.sɛ.nal\
Letters8
Frequency rank#71,449
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « décennal » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.décennaltombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « déboursés » (#71,448), « déchaînées » (#71,450), « débarquées » (#71,447). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « décennal » est au #71,449. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

décennal is uncommon French at frequency #71,449 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \de.sɛ.nal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for décennal, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is décennal, spelled D-É-C-E-N-N-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui dure dix ans ou qui revient tous les dix ans.
  2. 2
    Qui se produit en moyenne tous les dix ans.
  3. 3
    Qui a une chance sur dix de se produire chaque année.
  4. 4
    Vieux de dix ans.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Magistrature décennale.
  2. Garantie décennale.

This word in other languages

decennial(English)

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 "décennal"?
"décennal" is spelled D-É-C-E-N-N-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \de.sɛ.nal\.
What does "décennal" mean?
As an adjective, "décennal" means: Qui dure dix ans ou qui revient tous les dix ans.
How do you pronounce "décennal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "décennal" is \de.sɛ.nal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "décennal" come from?
"décennal" 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 "décennal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

décousue#71,452dribbler#71,440démiurge#71,459dossards#71,439

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list