pénible
French, adjective/pe.nibl/
pénible is spelled P-É-N-I-B-L-E (7 letters) and appears 8.7 times per million words in written French, the 7,421st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Pénible is a French adjective meaning “painful, hard, displeasing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Qui se fait avec peine, qui donne de la peine, de la fatigue”.
What does pénible mean in English?
adjective
- 1
painful, hard, displeasing
- 2
annoying
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Qui se fait avec peine, qui donne de la peine, de la fatigue. 2. Qualifie un style qui manque de naturel et qui sent l’effort. 3. Qui fait de la peine, qui affecte désagréablement l’âme, l’esprit.
noun: 1. Personne pénible, usante.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of pénible
- pénibles plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce pénible?
- /pe.nibl/
- \pe.nibl\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to pénible
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is pénible in French?
pénible appears 8.7 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).