radical

/\ʁa.di.kal\/ adj

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#6,017

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

6

similar word pairs

radical is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui vise à agir sur la cause profonde des effets qu’on veut modifier. Pronounced \ʁa.di.kal\. It ranks #6,017 in French word frequency. Often confused with radicale and radicaux.

Key facts for radical
PropertyValue
Headwordradical
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\ʁa.di.kal\
Letters7
Frequency rank#6,017
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of radical in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for radical is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁa.di.kal\. Corpus data places it at rank #6,017 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for radical, with forms such as "ardical", "radcial", and "raddical". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "radicale", "radicaux", "radicales", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is radical, spelled R-A-D-I-C-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui vise à agir sur la cause profonde des effets qu’on veut modifier.
  2. 2
    Ce qui a rapport au principe d’une chose, à son essence.
  3. 3
    Fondamental.
  4. 4
    Qui fait table rase du passé, qui révolutionne.
  5. 5
    Qui est absolu, qui va jusqu’au bout de ses opinions.
  6. 6
    Qui est sans nuances.
  7. 7
    Qui préconise l’application intégrale de certains principes ou qui veut les faire appliquer à tous les aspects de la vie sociale et politique.
  8. 8
    Relatif à un mouvement politique de centre-gauche.
  9. 9
    En rapport avec la racine du mot.
  10. 10
    En rapport avec une racine, carrée ou d'ordre plus grand, d’un nombre.
  11. 11
    Relatif à la racine ; qui s'attache à la racine ; qui ressemble à une racine.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ardical,radcial,raddical,radiacl,radicall,radiccal,radicla,raidcal,rdaical,rradical

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for radical

Misspelling Variants of "radical"

ardical7radcial7raddical8radiacl7radicall8radiccal8radicla7raidcal7
Misspelling Variants of "radical"

Frequency rank: #6,017 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "radical"?
"radical" is spelled R-A-D-I-C-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁa.di.kal\.
What does "radical" mean?
As an adj, "radical" means: Qui vise à agir sur la cause profonde des effets qu’on veut modifier.
What words are commonly confused with "radical"?
"radical" is commonly confused with "radicale", "radicaux", "radicales". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "radical"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "radical" is \ʁa.di.kal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "radical" come from?
"radical" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.