impalpable

\ɛ̃.pal.pabl\

/\ɛ̃.pal.pabl\/ adj

The verdict

“impalpable” is uncommon French (frequency #74,080 among 3,561 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#74,080
frequency rank, French
3,561
“I” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est si ténu, si fin, si délié, qu’il ne fait aucune impression sensible au toucher.

Corpus desk

Index FR-impalpable · impalpable · French

impalpable · rank #74,080 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #74,080
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,561
  • PHOTO-FINISH imitait

Nearest frequency peer: imitait (-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 « impalpable »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for impalpable
PropertyValue
Headwordimpalpable
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ɛ̃.pal.pabl\
Letters10
Frequency rank#74,080
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « impalpable » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).impalpabletombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « imitait » (#74,079), « imperméabilité » (#74,081), « impunie » (#74,082). Parmi 3,561 lemmes en « I », « impalpable » est au #74,080. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

impalpable is uncommon French at frequency #74,080 among 3,561 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ɛ̃.pal.pabl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui est si ténu, si fin, si délié, qu’il ne fait aucune impression sensible au toucher.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for impalpable, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is impalpable, spelled I-M-P-A-L-P-A-B-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est si ténu, si fin, si délié, qu’il ne fait aucune impression sensible au toucher.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais la terre était réduite à l’état de poussière presque impalpable, et le sable continuait doucement à couler des dunes escarpées.
  2. Ou, plutôt, celui-ci s’est fantomisé, est devenu impalpable, immatériel, incorporel, comme les ombres qu’Ulysse rencontrait aux Enfers.

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 "impalpable"?
"impalpable" is spelled I-M-P-A-L-P-A-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛ̃.pal.pabl\.
What does "impalpable" mean?
As an adjective, "impalpable" means: Qui est si ténu, si fin, si délié, qu’il ne fait aucune impression sensible au toucher.
How do you pronounce "impalpable"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "impalpable" is \ɛ̃.pal.pabl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "impalpable" come from?
"impalpable" 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 "impalpable", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list