Malheur

[maˈløːɐ̯]

/[maˈløːɐ̯]/ noun

The verdict

“Malheur” is uncommon German (frequency #56,332 among 3,571 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#56,332
frequency rank, German
3,571
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Unglücksfall, (peinliches) Missgeschick, Unfall, Pech (immer in Verbindung mit einem Ereignis)

Corpus desk

Index DE-malheur · Malheur · German

Malheur · rank #56,332 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #56,332
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,571
  • PHOTO-FINISH markiere

Nearest frequency peer: markiere (+2 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.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „Malheur“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „Malheur“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Malheur
PropertyValue
HeadwordMalheur
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[maˈløːɐ̯]
Letters7
Frequency rank#56,332
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Malheur“ im Deutschen

Diese Skala geht vom Kern des Alltagdeutschen (links) bis zum seltenen Langschwanz (rechts).Malheurfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „markiere“ (#56,334), „Lübbenau“ (#56,329), „Martinskirche“ (#56,335). Unter 3,571 „M“-Lemmata liegt „Malheur“ bei #56,332. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Malheur is uncommon German at frequency #56,332 among 3,571 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [maˈløːɐ̯]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Unglücksfall, (peinliches) Missgeschick, Unfall, Pech (immer in Verbindung mit einem Ereignis)".

Malheur doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is Malheur, spelled M-A-L-H-E-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Unglücksfall, (peinliches) Missgeschick, Unfall, Pech (immer in Verbindung mit einem Ereignis)

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mir ist letztens ein Malheur passiert.
  2. „Vielleicht besänftigte es sie, dass das Malheur in unmittelbarer Nähe der königlichen Familie geschehen war.“

Synonyms

Antonyms

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 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Malheur"?
"Malheur" is spelled M-A-L-H-E-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is [maˈløːɐ̯].
What does "Malheur" mean?
As a noun, "Malheur" means: Unglücksfall, (peinliches) Missgeschick, Unfall, Pech (immer in Verbindung mit einem Ereignis)
How do you pronounce "Malheur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Malheur" is [maˈløːɐ̯]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Malheur" come from?
"Malheur" is a German 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 German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Malheur", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list