difficile
\di.fi.sil\
The verdict
“difficile” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #553. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #553
- frequency rank, French
- 5,307
- “D” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Non facile, qui nécessite un grand effort.
Corpus desk
Index FR-difficile · difficile · French
difficile · rank #553 · 11 variants · 2 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #553
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,307
- PHOTO-FINISH cœur
Nearest frequency peer: cœur (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “difficile”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- club
club
99,451 corpus weight
- culture
culture
99,450 corpus weight
- cœur
cœur
99,449 corpus weight
- difficile
difficile
99,448 corpus weight
- existe
existe
99,447 corpus weight
- laisse
laisse
99,446 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “difficile” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | difficile |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \di.fi.sil\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #553 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “difficile” se place dans la fréquence du français
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around difficile (IPA \di.fi.sil\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #553 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for difficile, with forms such as "ddifficile", "dfificile", and "diffciile". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "difficulté", "difficiles", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is difficile, spelled D-I-F-F-I-C-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1Non facile, qui nécessite un grand effort.
- 2Qui est malaisé ; qui donne de la peine.
- 3Qui est exigeant, délicat.
- 4Qui est peu probable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how difficile appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Deux écoliers retournent ensemble à la maison et ont une tâche difficile à faire pour le lendemain. Plaintes et découragement de l'un, gaieté sereine de l'autre.
On fait aussi du pain, mais d'une digestion assez difficile, avec du seigle, de l’orge et même de l’avoine ; […].
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ddifficile
- dfificile
- diffciile
- difficcile
- difficiel
- difficille
- difficlie
- diffiicle
- dificile
- dififcile
- idfficile
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of difficile - 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.
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 "difficile"?
What does "difficile" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "difficile"?
How do you pronounce "difficile"?
What language does "difficile" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "difficile", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "difficile". Here's where to go from here.
- "difficile" maps to 2 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "difficulté". View pair
- 11 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #553 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "D" letter cohort. D–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.