focal

/\fɔ.kal\/ adj

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#46,767

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

13

similar word pairs

focal is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui a rapport, qui est placé au foyer des rayons lumineux d’un miroir ou d’une lentille. Pronounced \fɔ.kal\. Often confused with fol and foch.

Key facts for focal
PropertyValue
Headwordfocal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\fɔ.kal\
Letters5
Frequency rank#46,767
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of focal in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for focal is 5 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fɔ.kal\. Corpus data places it at rank #46,767 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for focal, with forms such as "fcoal", "ffocal", and "foacl". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "fol", "foch", "foll", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is focal, spelled F-O-C-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui a rapport, qui est placé au foyer des rayons lumineux d’un miroir ou d’une lentille.
  2. 2
    Qui a rapport au foyer d’une ellipse.
  3. 3
    Localisé, circonscrit, bien délimité

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: fcoal,ffocal,foacl,focall,foccal,focla,ofcal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for focal

Misspelling Variants of "focal"

fcoal5ffocal6foacl5focall6foccal6focla5ofcal5
Misspelling Variants of "focal"

Frequency rank: #46,767 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "focal"?
"focal" is spelled F-O-C-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \fɔ.kal\.
What does "focal" mean?
As an adj, "focal" means: Qui a rapport, qui est placé au foyer des rayons lumineux d’un miroir ou d’une lentille.
What words are commonly confused with "focal"?
"focal" is commonly confused with "fol", "foch", "foll". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "focal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "focal" is \fɔ.kal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "focal" come from?
"focal" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter F in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.