maternel
\ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\
The verdict
“maternel” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #12,197. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #12,197
- frequency rank, French
- 5,038
- “M” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est propre à la mère, qui est naturel à une mère.
Corpus desk
Index FR-maternel · maternel · French
maternel · rank #12,197 · 12 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,197
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,038
- PHOTO-FINISH masculins
Nearest frequency peer: masculins (-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.
Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « maternel »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- manœuvres
manœuvres
87,807 corpus weight
- map
map
87,806 corpus weight
- masculins
masculins
87,805 corpus weight
- maternel
maternel
87,804 corpus weight
- mercier
mercier
87,803 corpus weight
- miséricorde
miséricorde
87,802 corpus weight
What this shows « maternel » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | maternel |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #12,197 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « maternel »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around maternel (IPA \ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #12,197 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for maternel, with forms such as "amternel", "maetrnel", and "matenrel". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "maternels", "maternelle", "maternelles", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is maternel, spelled M-A-T-E-R-N-E-L.
Definition
- 1Qui est propre à la mère, qui est naturel à une mère.
- 2Qualifie un comportement de mère.
- 3Relatif à la lignée du côté de la mère.
- 4Qualifie la langue que l’on a apprise avec ses parents.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how maternel appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Premiers matins où les jeunes mères aiment leur fils, mais pas encore par amour maternel ; elles le plaignent, elles l’admirent : il sera un grand artiste : il se mariera.
Sa chair épanouie, luxuriante, lui renvoyait une image maternelle, et cela bien que sa propre mère n'eût que la peau sur les os.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amternel
- maetrnel
- matenrel
- materenl
- maternell
- maternle
- maternnel
- materrnel
- matrenel
- matternel
- mmaternel
- mtaernel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of maternel - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "maternel"?
What does "maternel" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "maternel"?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "maternel", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).