Paul
\pɔl\
The verdict
“Paul” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #882. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #882
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Prénom masculin.
Corpus desk
Index FR-paul · Paul · French
Paul · rank #882 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #882
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH nécessaire
Nearest frequency peer: nécessaire (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “Paul”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- joueur
joueur
99,122 corpus weight
- longue
longue
99,121 corpus weight
- nécessaire
nécessaire
99,120 corpus weight
- Paul
Paul
99,119 corpus weight
- porter
porter
99,118 corpus weight
- pouvait
pouvait
99,117 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “Paul” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | Paul |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | \pɔl\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #882 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “Paul” se place dans la fréquence du français
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around Paul (IPA \pɔl\), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #882 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for Paul, with forms such as "apul", "palu", and "paull". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PL", "peu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is Paul, spelled P-A-U-L.
Definition
- 1Prénom masculin.
- 2Paul de Tarse, également appelé saint Paul, auteur de la plupart des épîtres du Nouveau Testament et grand prédicateur des premiers temps du christianisme.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Paul appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Quand ma mère lui avait demandé, à mon propos : « Qui est-ce ?… » elle lui avait répondu : « C’est Paul !… – Qui ? Paul ?… avait répliqué ma mère. – Mais, ton fils !… »
Paul Berval, chanteur, humoriste et comédien québécois.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- apul
- palu
- paull
- ppaul
- pual
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Paul - 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 "Paul"?
What does "Paul" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Paul"?
How do you pronounce "Paul"?
What language does "Paul" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Paul", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "Paul". Here's where to go from here.
- "Paul" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "pu". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #882 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.