fatal

\fa.tal\

/\fa.tal\/ adj

The verdict

“fatal” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,774. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,774
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
19
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qu’on ne peut éviter, qui doit arriver inévitablement, qui est fixé d’une manière irrévocable.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fatal · fatal · French

fatal · rank #11,774 · 7 variants · 19 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,774
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 19 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH familiaux

Nearest frequency peer: familiaux (-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 « fatal »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « fatal » 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).

fatal vs fate
60% similar
fatal vs final
60% similar
fatal vs fatwa
60% similar

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

Key facts for fatal
PropertyValue
Headwordfatal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\fa.tal\
Letters5
Frequency rank#11,774
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « fatal »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).fatalse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « familiaux » (#11,773), « froides » (#11,775), « Fabien » (#11,772). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fatal » est au #11,774. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around fatal (IPA \fa.tal\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #11,774 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for fatal, with forms such as "aftal", "faatl", and "fatall". 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 19 confusable-pair relationships, "fate", "final", "fatwa", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is fatal, spelled F-A-T-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qu’on ne peut éviter, qui doit arriver inévitablement, qui est fixé d’une manière irrévocable.
  2. 2
    À qui on ne peut résister.
  3. 3
    Marqué par le destin.
  4. 4
    Qui entraîne avec soi quelque suite importante, en bien ou en mal.
  5. 5
    Qui produit du mal, des malheurs, qui scelle un destin.
  6. 6
    Qui tue.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’était fatal.
  2. Quand l’heure fatale est arrivée.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • aftal
  • faatl
  • fatall
  • fatla
  • fattal
  • ffatal
  • ftaal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fatal - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

aftal2faatl2fatall1fatla2fattal1ffatal1ftaal2
Edit distance from "fatal"

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 "fatal"?
"fatal" is spelled F-A-T-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \fa.tal\.
What does "fatal" mean?
As an adjective, "fatal" means: Qu’on ne peut éviter, qui doit arriver inévitablement, qui est fixé d’une manière irrévocable.
What words are commonly confused with "fatal"?
"fatal" is commonly confused with "fate", "final", "fatwa". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "fatal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fatal" is \fa.tal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fatal" come from?
"fatal" 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 "fatal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list