legal

/\leˈɡaːl\/ adj

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#24,656

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

legal is anFrenchadj. It means: Légal, légale : conforme à la loi. Pronounced \leˈɡaːl\. Often confused with liga and legs.

Key facts for legal
PropertyValue
Headwordlegal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\leˈɡaːl\
Letters5
Frequency rank#24,656
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for legal is 5 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \leˈɡaːl\. Corpus data places it at rank #24,656 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 legal, with forms such as "elgal", "leagl", and "legall". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "liga", "legs", "Lena", 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 legal, spelled L-E-G-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Légal, légale : conforme à la loi.
  2. 2
    Légal, légale : concernant, sur le plan de la loi.
  3. 3
    Légal, légale : fondé sur, fixé par la loi.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: elgal,leagl,legall,leggal,legla,lgeal,llegal

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for legal

Misspelling Variants of "legal"

elgal5leagl5legall6leggal6legla5lgeal5llegal6
Misspelling Variants of "legal"

Frequency rank: #24,656 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "legal"?
"legal" is spelled L-E-G-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \leˈɡaːl\.
What does "legal" mean?
As an adj, "legal" means: Légal, légale : conforme à la loi.
What words are commonly confused with "legal"?
"legal" is commonly confused with "liga", "legs", "Lena". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "legal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "legal" is \leˈɡaːl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "legal" come from?
"legal" 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 L 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.