létal

\le.tal\

/\le.tal\/ adj

The verdict

“létal” is uncommon French (frequency #60,178 among 2,567 “L” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,178
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui peut provoquer la mort.

Corpus desk

Index FR-letal · létal · French

létal · rank #60,178 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,178
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH légua

Nearest frequency peer: légua (-2 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 « létal »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for létal
PropertyValue
Headwordlétal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\le.tal\
Letters5
Frequency rank#60,178
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « létal » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).létaltombe 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: « légua » (#60,176), « macarena » (#60,180), « légalisée » (#60,175). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « létal » est au #60,178. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

létal is uncommon French at frequency #60,178 among 2,567 “L” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \le.tal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui peut provoquer la mort.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for létal, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is létal, spelled L-É-T-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui peut provoquer la mort.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La dose létale, ou meurtrière, dit-elle, pour une intoxication aiguë à l’arsenic est de 120 mg c’est-à-dire l’équivalent de quelque grain de poussière [?]. Pas de chance, la mort apparaît en quelques minutes.
  2. Des ONG, soutenues par des acteurs du numérique, demandent l’interdiction des armes létales autonomes.

Synonyms

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 "létal"?
"létal" is spelled L-É-T-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \le.tal\.
What does "létal" mean?
As an adjective, "létal" means: Qui peut provoquer la mort.
How do you pronounce "létal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "létal" is \le.tal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "létal" come from?
"létal" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "létal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list