pénalisant

\pe.na.li.zɑ̃\

/\pe.na.li.zɑ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“pénalisant” is uncommon French (frequency #50,453 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,453
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui pénalise, qui désavantage sur le plan économique, financier, ou social.

Corpus desk

Index FR-penalisant · pénalisant · French

pénalisant · rank #50,453 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,453
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH punchlines

Nearest frequency peer: punchlines (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « pénalisant »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « pénalisant » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pénalisant
PropertyValue
Headwordpénalisant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pe.na.li.zɑ̃\
Letters10
Frequency rank#50,453
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pénalisant » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).pénalisanttombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « punchlines » (#50,452), « péroné » (#50,454), « Publicis » (#50,451). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pénalisant » est au #50,453. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pénalisant is uncommon French at frequency #50,453 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \pe.na.li.zɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui pénalise, qui désavantage sur le plan économique, financier, ou social.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for pénalisant in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

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 pénalisant, spelled P-É-N-A-L-I-S-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui pénalise, qui désavantage sur le plan économique, financier, ou social.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Dans son dernier ouvrage, Reprenons-nous!, Jean-Paul Delevoye, le président du Conseil économique, social et environnemental, partageait également ce constat d’une école devenue «machine à exclure». Ce système provoque des effets de plus en plus pervers et pénalisants pour l’ensemble du pays.

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 "pénalisant"?
"pénalisant" is spelled P-É-N-A-L-I-S-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.na.li.zɑ̃\.
What does "pénalisant" mean?
As an adjective, "pénalisant" means: Qui pénalise, qui désavantage sur le plan économique, financier, ou social.
How do you pronounce "pénalisant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pénalisant" is \pe.na.li.zɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pénalisant" come from?
"pénalisant" 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 "pénalisant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list