pliable

\pli.abl\

/\pli.abl\/ adj

The verdict

“pliable” is uncommon French (frequency #51,048 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,048
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est flexible, aisé à plier.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pliable · pliable · French

pliable · rank #51,048 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,048
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH plaisaient

Nearest frequency peer: plaisaient (-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 “pliable”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “pliable” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pliable
PropertyValue
Headwordpliable
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pli.abl\
Letters7
Frequency rank#51,048
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “pliable” se place dans la fréquence du français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).pliablese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « plaisaient » (#51,047), « più » (#51,046), « plumer » (#51,050). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pliable is uncommon French at frequency #51,048 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \pli.abl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pliable, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is pliable, spelled P-L-I-A-B-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est flexible, aisé à plier.
  2. 2
    Qui est docile, disposé à se laisser gouverner.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Cette sorte de bois n’est guère pliable.
  2. Avoir l’esprit pliable, l’humeur pliable.

This word in other languages

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 "pliable"?
"pliable" is spelled P-L-I-A-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pli.abl\.
What does "pliable" mean?
As an adjective, "pliable" means: Qui est flexible, aisé à plier.
How do you pronounce "pliable"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pliable" is \pli.abl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pliable" come from?
"pliable" 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 "pliable", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

What to do next

You've looked up "pliable". Here's where to go from here.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list