subliminal
\sy.bli.mi.nal\
The verdict
“subliminal” is uncommon French (frequency #51,156 among 394,209 “S” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,156
- frequency rank, French
- 394,209
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui est perçu par le destinataire (la cible du message), mais à un niveau inconscient.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | subliminal |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \sy.bli.mi.nal\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #51,156 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “subliminal” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
subliminal is uncommon French at frequency #51,156 among 394,209 “S” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \sy.bli.mi.nal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for subliminal, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is subliminal, spelled S-U-B-L-I-M-I-N-A-L.
Definition
- 1Qui est perçu par le destinataire (la cible du message), mais à un niveau inconscient.
- 2Qualifie un stimulus (message audio ou image) subreptice, conçu pour être enregistré par le cerveau, sans toutefois passer par le contrôle de l’intelligence, et qui peut ainsi influencer le destinataire à son insu.
- 3Qualifie le sens implicite d’une parole qui est parfaitement comprise par l’auditeur.
Synonyms
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
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Using “subliminal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-U-B-L-I-M-I-N-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sy.bli.mi.nal\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.