macadam

/\ma.ka.dam\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#47,436

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

macadam is aFrenchnoun. It means: Empierrement de routes ou de pavage de rues qui se fait avec des cailloux ou du granit concassé, fortement comprimés. Pronounced \ma.ka.dam\.

Key facts for macadam
PropertyValue
Headwordmacadam
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ma.ka.dam\
Letters7
Frequency rank#47,436
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for macadam is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ma.ka.dam\. Corpus data places it at rank #47,436 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for macadam, with forms such as "amcadam", "maacdam", and "macaadm". 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 is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

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 macadam, spelled M-A-C-A-D-A-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Empierrement de routes ou de pavage de rues qui se fait avec des cailloux ou du granit concassé, fortement comprimés.
  2. 2
    Chaussée ou trottoir ainsi empierré.
  3. 3
    Couche d’asphalte ou d'enrobé bitumineux utilisé comme revêtement de la chaussée.
  4. 4
    Toutes sortes de route, et en particulier les routes goudronnées.
  5. 5
    Escroquerie aux assurances maladies.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: amcadam,maacdam,macaadm,macadamm,macaddam,macadma,maccadam,macdaam,mcaadam,mmacadam

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for macadam

Misspelling Variants of "macadam"

amcadam7maacdam7macaadm7macadamm8macaddam8macadma7maccadam8macdaam7
Misspelling Variants of "macadam"

Frequency rank: #47,436 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "macadam"?
"macadam" is spelled M-A-C-A-D-A-M. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.ka.dam\.
What does "macadam" mean?
As a noun, "macadam" means: Empierrement de routes ou de pavage de rues qui se fait avec des cailloux ou du granit concassé, fortement comprimés.
What are common misspellings of "macadam"?
Common misspellings include "amcadam", "maacdam", "macaadm", "macadamm", "macaddam". The correct spelling is "macadam".
How do you pronounce "macadam"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "macadam" is \ma.ka.dam\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "macadam" come from?
"macadam" 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 M 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.