pal

\pal\

/\pal\/ noun

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

The verdict

“pal” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #18,014) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#18,014
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pieu, pièce de bois ou de métal longue et aiguisée à un bout.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pal · pal · French

pal · rank #18,014 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #18,014
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH paillettes

Nearest frequency peer: paillettes (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « pal »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « pal » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

pal vs pu
33% similar
pal vs PS
0% similar
pal vs PQ
0% similar

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

Key facts for pal
PropertyValue
Headwordpal
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pal\
Letters3
Frequency rank#18,014
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « pal »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).palse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « paillettes » (#18,013), « paupières » (#18,015), « onzième » (#18,012). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pal » est au #18,014. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for pal is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "PS", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \pal\. Frequency #18,014 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

pal has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PS", "PQ", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is pal, spelled P-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pieu, pièce de bois ou de métal longue et aiguisée à un bout.
  2. 2
    Outil de fer utilisé comme plantoir ou comme injecteur par les vignerons.
  3. 3
    Pièce honorable placée verticalement dans l’écu qu’il traverse du haut du chef jusqu’à la pointe, et délimitée par deux lignes verticales parallèles.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. On place des pals sous les arbres ployant d’un côté d’une voie de circulation afin de prévenir leur chute.
  2. Le supplice du pal consiste à enfoncer un pieu dans le corps d’un condamné.

Synonyms

pieu

This word in other languages

stake(English)estaca(Español)Pfahl(Deutsch)pau(Português)

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 "pal"?
"pal" is spelled P-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \pal\.
What does "pal" mean?
As a noun, "pal" means: Pieu, pièce de bois ou de métal longue et aiguisée à un bout.
What words are commonly confused with "pal"?
"pal" is commonly confused with "pu", "PS", "PQ". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pal"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pal" is \pal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pal" come from?
"pal" 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 "pal", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mil#17,999rep#18,044kay#17,983IRM#17,979

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list