tunnel

\ty.nɛl\

/\ty.nɛl\/ noun

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

The verdict

“tunnel” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,712. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,712
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Voie souterraine percée à travers une montagne, une colline, établie sous une rivière, etc.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tunnel · tunnel · French

tunnel · rank #5,712 · 7 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,712
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH traduire

Nearest frequency peer: traduire (-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 « tunnel »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « tunnel » 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).

tunnel vs Turner
50% similar
tunnel vs tunnels
86% similar
tunnel vs tune
67% similar

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

Key facts for tunnel
PropertyValue
Headwordtunnel
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ty.nɛl\
Letters6
Frequency rank#5,712
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « tunnel »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.tunnelse 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 « traduire » (#5,711), « Toulon » (#5,710), « verres » (#5,714). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tunnel » est au #5,712. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around tunnel (IPA \ty.nɛl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,712 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for tunnel, with forms such as "tnunel", "ttunnel", and "tunel". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "Turner", "tunnels", "tune", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is tunnel, spelled T-U-N-N-E-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Voie souterraine percée à travers une montagne, une colline, établie sous une rivière, etc.
  2. 2
    Trou noir, période de difficultés.
  3. 3
    Tirade ou monologue interminable et inextricable.
  4. 4
    Serre basse en matière plastique soutenue par des arceaux.
  5. 5
    Système permettant de faire transiter des données entre deux points du réseau, à l’intérieur de flux de données existants.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le projet qui a réuni à Bristol la majorité des suffrages consiste à établir non pas un pont sur le Severn , mais un tunnel avec chemin de fer sous cette rivière.
  2. À dix heures un quart, le capitaine Nemo prit lui-même la barre. Une large galerie, noire et profonde, s'ouvrait devant nous. Le Nautilus s'y engouffra hardiment. Un bruissement inaccoutumé se fit entendre sur ses flancs. C'étaient les eaux de la mer Rouge que la pente du tunnel précipitait vers la Méditerranée. Le Nautilus suivait le torrent, rapide comm…

This word in other languages

tunnel(English)túnel(Español)Tunnel(Deutsch)túnel(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • tnunel
  • ttunnel
  • tunel
  • tunenl
  • tunnell
  • tunnle
  • utnnel

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

tnunel2ttunnel1tunel1tunenl2tunnell1tunnle2utnnel2
Edit distance from "tunnel"

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 "tunnel"?
"tunnel" is spelled T-U-N-N-E-L. The IPA pronunciation is \ty.nɛl\.
What does "tunnel" mean?
As a noun, "tunnel" means: Voie souterraine percée à travers une montagne, une colline, établie sous une rivière, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "tunnel"?
"tunnel" is commonly confused with "Turner", "tunnels", "tune". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tunnel"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tunnel" is \ty.nɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tunnel" come from?
"tunnel" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "tunnel", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Toulon#5,710verres#5,714Taylor#5,708Égypte#5,718

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

virer7 variantsapport7 variantsasseoir7 variantspacte7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list