dorsale

\dɔʁ.sal\

/\dɔʁ.sal\/ noun

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

The verdict

“dorsale” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #20,422. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#20,422
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ride médio-océanique, zone de divergence entre deux plaques tectoniques qui s'écartent l'une de l'autre avec création de lithosphère océanique.

Corpus desk

Index FR-dorsale · dorsale · French

dorsale · rank #20,422 · 10 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #20,422
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH Dorothy

Nearest frequency peer: Dorothy (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « dorsale »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « dorsale » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

dorsale vs dosage
71% similar
dorsale vs Dorval
57% similar
dorsale vs dorsales
88% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for dorsale
PropertyValue
Headworddorsale
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dɔʁ.sal\
Letters7
Frequency rank#20,422
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « dorsale »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.dorsalese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Dorothy » (#20,421), « dt » (#20,423), « Doris » (#20,420). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « dorsale » est au #20,422. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around dorsale (IPA \dɔʁ.sal\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #20,422 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for dorsale, with forms such as "ddorsale", "dorasle", and "dorrsale". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "dosage", "Dorval", "dorsales", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is dorsale, spelled D-O-R-S-A-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ride médio-océanique, zone de divergence entre deux plaques tectoniques qui s'écartent l'une de l'autre avec création de lithosphère océanique.
  2. 2
    Consonne articulée avec le « dos » de la langue, plutôt que la pointe ou à l'arrière.
  3. 3
    Axe de pression maximal non fermé.
  4. 4
    Partie principale d’un réseau de télécommunication ou de téléinformatique, caractérisée par un débit élevé, qui concentre et transporte les flux de données entre des réseaux affluents.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La dorsale atlantique.
  2. En français, les dorsales sont les sons \ɡ\, \k\ et \j\.

Synonyms

riftcrête barométriquebackbone

Antonyms

talweg

This word in other languages

rift(English)dorsal(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddorsale
  • dorasle
  • dorrsale
  • dorsael
  • dorsalle
  • dorslae
  • dorssale
  • dosrale
  • drosale
  • odrsale

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dorsale - 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.

ddorsale1dorasle2dorrsale1dorsael2dorsalle1dorslae2dorssale1dosrale2
Edit distance from "dorsale"

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 "dorsale"?
"dorsale" is spelled D-O-R-S-A-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \dɔʁ.sal\.
What does "dorsale" mean?
As a noun, "dorsale" means: Ride médio-océanique, zone de divergence entre deux plaques tectoniques qui s'écartent l'une de l'autre avec création de lithosphère océanique.
What words are commonly confused with "dorsale"?
"dorsale" is commonly confused with "dosage", "Dorval", "dorsales". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "dorsale"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dorsale" is \dɔʁ.sal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dorsale" come from?
"dorsale" 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 "dorsale", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Dorothy#20,421délices#20,428Cyrille#20,413croquer#20,410

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

déclic10 variantscervelle10 variantsHyères10 variantsillusoire10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list