principal
The verdict
“principal” has 14 generated spelling variants in the Portuguese index at frequency #510. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #510
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 1,578
- “P” headwords
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - o mais importante
Corpus desk
Index PT-principal · principal · Portuguese
principal · rank #510 · 14 variants · 3 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #510
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 14 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,578
- PHOTO-FINISH perto
Nearest frequency peer: perto (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “principal”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- ouvir
ouvir
99,494 corpus weight
- perto
perto
99,492 corpus weight
- principal
principal
99,491 corpus weight
- s
s
99,490 corpus weight
- setembro
setembro
99,489 corpus weight
- vivo
vivo
99,488 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “principal” sits against the nearest ranked Portuguese headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | principal |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #510 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Onde “principal” fica na frequência do português
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 14 spelling variants around principal, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #510 among 1,578 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for principal, with forms such as "pirncipal", "pprincipal", and "pricnipal". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "príncipe", "princípio", "principado", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct Portuguese form is principal, spelled P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L.
Definition
- 1o mais importante
- 2notável
- 3oração seguida por uma oração subordinada
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how principal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
O principal adversário de Denis é o atual camisa 41 do São Paulo, Leonardo.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- pirncipal
- pprincipal
- pricnipal
- princcipal
- princiapl
- principall
- principla
- princippal
- princpial
- prinicpal
- prinncipal
- prnicipal
- prrincipal
- rpincipal
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of principal - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "principal"?
What does "principal" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "principal"?
What language does "principal" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "principal", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "principal". Here's where to go from here.
- "principal" maps to 3 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "príncipe". View pair
- 14 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #510 among Portuguese headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more Portuguese words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.