pénible

\pe.nibl\

/\pe.nibl\/ adj

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

The verdict

“pénible” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #7,488. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#7,488
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui se fait avec peine, qui donne de la peine, de la fatigue.

Corpus desk

Index FR-penible · pénible · French

pénible · rank #7,488 · 11 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,488
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH préjugés

Nearest frequency peer: préjugés (-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 « pénible »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « pénible » 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).

pénible vs périple
71% similar
pénible vs péniche
71% similar
pénible vs pénibles
88% similar

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

Key facts for pénible
PropertyValue
Headwordpénible
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pe.nibl\
Letters7
Frequency rank#7,488
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pénible »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.péniblese 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 « préjugés » (#7,487), « péril » (#7,489), « protéines » (#7,486). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pénible » est au #7,488. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around pénible (IPA \pe.nibl\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #7,488 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for pénible, with forms such as "penible", "pnéible", and "ppénible". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "périple", "péniche", "pénibles", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is pénible, spelled P-É-N-I-B-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui se fait avec peine, qui donne de la peine, de la fatigue.
  2. 2
    Qualifie un style qui manque de naturel et qui sent l’effort.
  3. 3
    Qui fait de la peine, qui affecte désagréablement l’âme, l’esprit.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Quelles fonctions plus pénibles et plus dispendieuses que celles de capitaine et de chef de bataillon de la garde nationale, dans une commune de campagne ?
  2. Attaquez-vous aux travaux pénibles.

This word in other languages

distressing(English)penoso(Español)mühsam(Deutsch)penoso(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • penible
  • pnéible
  • ppénible
  • péinble
  • pénbile
  • pénibble
  • pénibel
  • péniblle
  • pénilbe
  • pénnible
  • épnible

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pénible - 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.

penible1pnéible2ppénible1péinble2pénbile2pénibble1pénibel2péniblle1
Edit distance from "pénible"

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 "pénible"?
"pénible" is spelled P-É-N-I-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.nibl\.
What does "pénible" mean?
As an adjective, "pénible" means: Qui se fait avec peine, qui donne de la peine, de la fatigue.
What words are commonly confused with "pénible"?
"pénible" is commonly confused with "périple", "péniche", "pénibles". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pénible"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pénible" is \pe.nibl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pénible" come from?
"pénible" 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 "pénible", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Raphaël#7,490pervers#7,476patrice#7,475ouvrant#7,473

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

repousser11 variantsroutière11 variantstournois11 variantscassation11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list