opale

\ɔ.pal\

/\ɔ.pal\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“opale” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #34,224. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#34,224
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
18
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Famille de minéraux composé de silice hydratée de formule brute SiO₂, nH₂O, qui inclut trois espèces minérales distinctes : la cristobalite, la tridymite et la silice amorphe hydratée.

Corpus desk

Index FR-opale · opale · French

opale · rank #34,224 · 6 variants · 18 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #34,224
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 18 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH oranger

Nearest frequency peer: oranger (+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 « opale »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « opale » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

opale vs oral
60% similar
opale vs opté
40% similar
opale vs otage
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for opale
PropertyValue
Headwordopale
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɔ.pal\
Letters5
Frequency rank#34,224
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs18
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « opale »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.opalese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « oranger » (#34,225), « ogive » (#34,222), « orbe » (#34,226). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « opale » est au #34,224. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around opale (IPA \ɔ.pal\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #34,224 among 1,642 “O” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for opale, with forms such as "oaple", "opael", and "opalle". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "oral", "opté", "otage", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is opale, spelled O-P-A-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Famille de minéraux composé de silice hydratée de formule brute SiO₂, nH₂O, qui inclut trois espèces minérales distinctes : la cristobalite, la tridymite et la silice amorphe hydratée.
  2. 2
    Croûte de cristaux qui se forme à la surface du sirop de sucre pendant la cristallisation → voir opaler.
  3. 3
    Nom donné à l'un des trois codon-stop. Parfois aussi nommé azure. C'est le codon UGA.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Parmi les auteurs, les uns ont comparé l'effet général des opales à l’arménium, couleur employée par les peintres ; les autres, à la flamme du soufre qui brûle, ou à celle d'un feu sur lequel on jette de l'huile.
  2. Il avait tiré la bague d’opale de son doigt. Elle chatoyait, dans la fin du jour, comme un reflet de beauté, de jeunesse, de plaisir.

Synonyms

cachalongopale communeopale nobleopale potchvidrite

This word in other languages

opal(English)ópalo(Español)Opal(Deutsch)opala(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oaple
  • opael
  • opalle
  • oplae
  • oppale
  • poale

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of opale - 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.

oaple2opael2opalle1oplae2oppale1poale2
Edit distance from "opale"

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 "opale"?
"opale" is spelled O-P-A-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɔ.pal\.
What does "opale" mean?
As a noun, "opale" means: Famille de minéraux composé de silice hydratée de formule brute SiO₂, nH₂O, qui inclut trois espèces minérales distinctes : la cristobalite, la tridymite et la silice amorphe hydratée.
What words are commonly confused with "opale"?
"opale" is commonly confused with "oral", "opté", "otage". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "opale"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "opale" is \ɔ.pal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "opale" come from?
"opale" 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 "opale", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

ogive#34,222paoli#34,235mytho#34,207myope#34,206

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

Noëlle6 variantspeck6 variantsmors6 variantsmint6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list