spirale

\spi.ʁal\

/\spi.ʁal\/ noun

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

The verdict

“spirale” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,307. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,307
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Courbe plane qui s’écarte toujours de plus en plus du point autour duquel elle fait une infinité de révolutions.

Corpus desk

Index FR-spirale · spirale · French

spirale · rank #11,307 · 10 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #11,307
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH Soviétiques

Nearest frequency peer: Soviétiques (-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 « spirale »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « spirale » 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).

spirale vs spire
71% similar

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

Key facts for spirale
PropertyValue
Headwordspirale
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\spi.ʁal\
Letters7
Frequency rank#11,307
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « spirale »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).spiralese 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 « Soviétiques » (#11,306), « sr » (#11,308), « sonores » (#11,305). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « spirale » est au #11,307. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around spirale (IPA \spi.ʁal\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #11,307 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for spirale, with forms such as "psirale", "siprale", and "spiarle". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "spire", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is spirale, spelled S-P-I-R-A-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Courbe plane qui s’écarte toujours de plus en plus du point autour duquel elle fait une infinité de révolutions.
  2. 2
    Objet qui a une forme approchante de la spirale ou de la spire ; suite de circonvolutions.
  3. 3
    Développement incontrôlé d’un phénomène.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La spirale logarithmique qui fait toujours le même angle avec ses ordonnées concourantes à son centre.
  2. Pour vous la vie est un cycle, pour moi elle est une spirale aplatie, la spirale de Goethe ; on n’en sort pas en faisant demi-tour ; le galop en arrière est une fausse révolution, une révolution de conservateurs ; il faut courir vite au bout de chaque période pour monter plus haut.

Synonyms

colimaçonvrilleengrenage

This word in other languages

spiral(English)espiral(Español)Spirale(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • psirale
  • siprale
  • spiarle
  • spirael
  • spiralle
  • spirlae
  • spirrale
  • sppirale
  • spriale
  • sspirale

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

psirale2siprale2spiarle2spirael2spiralle1spirlae2spirrale1sppirale1
Edit distance from "spirale"

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 "spirale"?
"spirale" is spelled S-P-I-R-A-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \spi.ʁal\.
What does "spirale" mean?
As a noun, "spirale" means: Courbe plane qui s’écarte toujours de plus en plus du point autour duquel elle fait une infinité de révolutions.
What words are commonly confused with "spirale"?
"spirale" is commonly confused with "spire". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "spirale"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spirale" is \spi.ʁal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "spirale" come from?
"spirale" 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 "spirale", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

sonores#11,305stocker#11,309Simpson#11,304tendent#11,313

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

saintes10 variantsvieillesse10 variantsvierges10 variantsrepoussé10 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list