principales

\pʁɛ̃.si.pal\

/\pʁɛ̃.si.pal\/ adj

The verdict

“principales” has 17 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,330. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,330
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
17
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

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

Corpus desk

Index FR-principales · principales · French

principales · rank #2,330 · 17 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,330
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 17 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pouvant

Nearest frequency peer: pouvant (-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 « principales »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « principales » 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).

principales vs principes
82% similar
principales vs principautés
75% similar
principales vs principal
82% similar

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

Key facts for principales
PropertyValue
Headwordprincipales
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pʁɛ̃.si.pal\
Letters11
Frequency rank#2,330
Misspellings tracked17
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « principales »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).principalesse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « pouvant » (#2,329), « professionnelle » (#2,331), « plateau » (#2,328). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « principales » est au #2,330. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 17 spelling variants around principales (IPA \pʁɛ̃.si.pal\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #2,330 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Féminin pluriel de principal.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for principales, with forms such as "pirncipales", "pprincipales", and "pricnipales". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "principes", "principautés", "principal", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is principales, spelled P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L-E-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Féminin pluriel de principal.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ses principales références artistiques sont l’art de la Renaissance italienne, et surtout celui des préraphaélites dont elle se sent très proche…
  2. Pour ce qui est de la forme à donner à cette étude, il apparaît que la chronologie impose quelques divisions principales.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • pirncipales
  • pprincipales
  • pricnipales
  • princcipales
  • princiaples
  • principaels
  • principaless
  • principalles
  • principalse
  • principlaes
  • princippales
  • princpiales
  • prinicpales
  • prinncipales
  • prnicipales
  • prrincipales
  • rpincipales

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of principales - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

pirncipales2pprincipales1pricnipales2princcipales1princiaples2principaels2principaless1principalles1
Edit distance from "principales"

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 "principales"?
"principales" is spelled P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L-E-S. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁɛ̃.si.pal\.
What does "principales" mean?
As an adjective, "principales" means: Féminin pluriel de principal.
What words are commonly confused with "principales"?
"principales" is commonly confused with "principes", "principautés", "principal". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "principales"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "principales" is \pʁɛ̃.si.pal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "principales" come from?
"principales" 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 "principales", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (17 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list