pénale

\pe.nal\

/\pe.nal\/ adj

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

The verdict

“pénale” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,736. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#6,736
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Féminin singulier de pénal.

Corpus desk

Index FR-penale · pénale · French

pénale · rank #6,736 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,736
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pénal

Nearest frequency peer: pénal (-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 « pénale »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « pénale » 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).

pénale vs pensé
33% similar
pénale vs pente
50% similar
pénale vs perle
50% similar

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

Key facts for pénale
PropertyValue
Headwordpénale
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pe.nal\
Letters6
Frequency rank#6,736
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pénale »

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « pénal » (#6,735), « quarantaine » (#6,737), « proviennent » (#6,734). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pénale » est au #6,736. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around pénale (IPA \pe.nal\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #6,736 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Féminin singulier de pénal.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for pénale, with forms such as "penale", "pnéale", and "ppénale". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pensé", "pente", "perle", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is pénale, spelled P-É-N-A-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Féminin singulier de pénal.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. La loi italienne no 81 du 16 février 1987 dite loi de délégation pour le futur Code de procédure pénale est faite de lignes directrices dont plusieurs ont pour objet de rapidifier la procédure 1871.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • penale
  • pnéale
  • ppénale
  • péanle
  • pénael
  • pénalle
  • pénlae
  • pénnale
  • épnale

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pénale - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

penale1pnéale2ppénale1péanle2pénael2pénalle1pénlae2pénnale1
Edit distance from "pénale"

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 "pénale"?
"pénale" is spelled P-É-N-A-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.nal\.
What does "pénale" mean?
As an adjective, "pénale" means: Féminin singulier de pénal.
What words are commonly confused with "pénale"?
"pénale" is commonly confused with "pensé", "pente", "perle". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pénale"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pénale" is \pe.nal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pénale" come from?
"pénale" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "pénale", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

posent#6,729rendra#6,744restez#6,747ongles#6,721

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

Pauline9 variantsrédigé9 variantsréelles9 variantsmettons9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list