gale

\ɡal\

/\ɡal\/ noun

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

The verdict

“gale” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #20,452) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#20,452
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Maladie parasitaire causée par le sarcopte, cutanée et contagieuse de l’homme et des animaux, caractérisée chez l’homme par une éruption de vésicules transparentes à leur sommet, qui se développent...

Corpus desk

Index FR-gale · gale · French

gale · rank #20,452 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #20,452
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH Freddie

Nearest frequency peer: Freddie (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « gale »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « gale » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

gale vs gl
50% similar
gale vs gré
25% similar
gale vs gel
50% similar

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

Key facts for gale
PropertyValue
Headwordgale
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɡal\
Letters4
Frequency rank#20,452
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « gale »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.galese 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 « Freddie » (#20,451), « gall » (#20,453), « Gaël » (#20,454). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « gale » est au #20,452. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for gale is neighbouring look-alikes ("gl", "gré", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɡal\. Frequency #20,452 among 2,617 “G” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for gale, with forms such as "agle", "gael", and "ggale". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "gl", "gré", "gel", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is gale, spelled G-A-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Maladie parasitaire causée par le sarcopte, cutanée et contagieuse de l’homme et des animaux, caractérisée chez l’homme par une éruption de vésicules transparentes à leur sommet, qui se développent principalement au pli des articulations, et qui sont toujours accompagnées de démangeaison.
  2. 2
    Croûte qui se forme sur une blessure, une plaie en voie de guérison.
  3. 3
    Teigne, personne méchante et nocive.
  4. 4
    Maladie des végétaux, caractérisée par des rugosités sur l’écorce des branches, sur les feuilles et sur les fruits.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. — Combien avez-vous de malades à l’infirmerie ? — Un chiffre normal… une trentaine, je crois. — Pas de maladies contagieuses ? — La gale, monsieur le Ministre. — Beaucoup de cas ? — Oh ! non… cinq ou six. — On connaît l’origine de cette infection ? — Ils attrapent ça en ville… vous savez !
  2. Cet homme-là, voyez-vous, c’était comme une gale qui le rongeait à des endroits qu’il ne pouvait pas gratter seul.

Synonyms

acariose psoriquepsorescabiose

This word in other languages

scabies(English)sarna(Español)Krätze(Deutsch)sarna(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • agle
  • gael
  • ggale
  • glae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

agle2gael2ggale1glae2
Edit distance from "gale"

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 "gale"?
"gale" is spelled G-A-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡal\.
What does "gale" mean?
As a noun, "gale" means: Maladie parasitaire causée par le sarcopte, cutanée et contagieuse de l’homme et des animaux, caractérisée chez l’homme par une éruption de vésicules transparentes à leur sommet, qui se développent...
What words are commonly confused with "gale"?
"gale" is commonly confused with "gl", "gré", "gel". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "gale"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "gale" is \ɡal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "gale" come from?
"gale" 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 "gale", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

gall#20,453Gaël#20,454lock#20,485mage#20,491

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list