dépénaliser

\de.pe.na.li.ze\

/\de.pe.na.li.ze\/ verb

The verdict

“dépénaliser” is uncommon French (frequency #80,149 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#80,149
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Arrêter de considérer comme passible de poursuites pénales.

Corpus desk

Index FR-depenaliser · dépénaliser · French

dépénaliser · rank #80,149 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #80,149
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH dénaturation

Nearest frequency peer: dénaturation (-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 « dépénaliser »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for dépénaliser
PropertyValue
Headworddépénaliser
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\de.pe.na.li.ze\
Letters11
Frequency rank#80,149
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « dépénaliser » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).dépénalisertombe 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: « dénaturation » (#80,148), « dérégler » (#80,150), « démultiplier » (#80,147). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « dépénaliser » est au #80,149. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

dépénaliser is uncommon French at frequency #80,149 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \de.pe.na.li.ze\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Arrêter de considérer comme passible de poursuites pénales.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for dépénaliser, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is dépénaliser, spelled D-É-P-É-N-A-L-I-S-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Arrêter de considérer comme passible de poursuites pénales.

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 "dépénaliser"?
"dépénaliser" is spelled D-É-P-É-N-A-L-I-S-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \de.pe.na.li.ze\.
What does "dépénaliser" mean?
As a verb, "dépénaliser" means: Arrêter de considérer comme passible de poursuites pénales.
How do you pronounce "dépénaliser"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dépénaliser" is \de.pe.na.li.ze\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dépénaliser" come from?
"dépénaliser" 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 "dépénaliser", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list