diagonal

\dja.ɡɔ.nal\

/\dja.ɡɔ.nal\/ adj

The verdict

“diagonal” is uncommon French (frequency #59,944 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,944
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui va d’un angle d’une figure rectiligne à l’angle opposé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-diagonal · diagonal · French

diagonal · rank #59,944 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,944
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH DGAC

Nearest frequency peer: DGAC (-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 « diagonal »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for diagonal
PropertyValue
Headworddiagonal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\dja.ɡɔ.nal\
Letters8
Frequency rank#59,944
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « diagonal » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).diagonaltombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « DGAC » (#59,943), « diapos » (#59,945), « diario » (#59,946). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « diagonal » est au #59,944. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

diagonal is uncommon French at frequency #59,944 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \dja.ɡɔ.nal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for diagonal, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is diagonal, spelled D-I-A-G-O-N-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui va d’un angle d’une figure rectiligne à l’angle opposé.
  2. 2
    Transversal, oblique.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. la ligne diagonale.
  2. Des plis diagonaux sillonnaient le peu qu'on voyait de son corps à travers le tissu léger.

This word in other languages

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 "diagonal"?
"diagonal" is spelled D-I-A-G-O-N-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \dja.ɡɔ.nal\.
What does "diagonal" mean?
As an adjective, "diagonal" means: Qui va d’un angle d’une figure rectiligne à l’angle opposé.
How do you pronounce "diagonal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "diagonal" is \dja.ɡɔ.nal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "diagonal" come from?
"diagonal" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "diagonal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list