frugal

\fʁy.ɡal\

/\fʁy.ɡal\/ adj

The verdict

“frugal” is uncommon French (frequency #64,463 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#64,463
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui se contente de mets simples.

Corpus desk

Index FR-frugal · frugal · French

frugal · rank #64,463 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #64,463
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH frimousse

Nearest frequency peer: frimousse (-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 « frugal »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for frugal
PropertyValue
Headwordfrugal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\fʁy.ɡal\
Letters6
Frequency rank#64,463
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « frugal » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.frugaltombe 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: « frimousse » (#64,462), « fruitée » (#64,464), « frilosité » (#64,461). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « frugal » est au #64,463. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

frugal is uncommon French at frequency #64,463 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \fʁy.ɡal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

frugal doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is frugal, spelled F-R-U-G-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui se contente de mets simples.
  2. 2
    Qui consiste en mets simples, et peu abondants.
  3. 3
    Par euphémisme, sobre, qui se refuse à l'endettement

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Quoique la puissance et les richesses d’un Empereur de la Chine soient presque immenses, il était frugal dans ses repas, et éloigné de tout luxe pour sa personne ; […].
  2. Le bissac fut ouvert, et elles partagèrent en sœurs leur frugal repas.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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 "frugal"?
"frugal" is spelled F-R-U-G-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \fʁy.ɡal\.
What does "frugal" mean?
As an adjective, "frugal" means: Qui se contente de mets simples.
How do you pronounce "frugal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "frugal" is \fʁy.ɡal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "frugal" come from?
"frugal" 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 "frugal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list