bonne volonté

\bɔn vo.lɔ̃.te\

/\bɔn vo.lɔ̃.te\/ noun

The verdict

“bonne volonté” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Volonté de rendre service, de bien faire ou d’être serviable.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bonne-volonte · bonne volonté · French

bonne volonté · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for bonne volonté
PropertyValue
Headwordbonne volonté
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bɔn vo.lɔ̃.te\
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « bonne volonté » en français

bonne volontéreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

bonne volonté is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \bɔn vo.lɔ̃.te\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

bonne volonté has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is bonne volonté, spelled B-O-N-N-E- -V-O-L-O-N-T-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Volonté de rendre service, de bien faire ou d’être serviable.
  2. 2
    Personne dont le but est de faire le bien.
  3. 3
    Personne capable de dévouement et d’altruisme.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Asseyez-vous là, voisin, sans vous commander… Seulement, prenez garde au tabouret, il n’a que trois pieds, et faut que la bonne volonté tienne lieu du quatrième. — Il me semble que c’est une richesse qui ne manque point ici ? ai-je fait observer. — La bonne volonté ! a répété Chaufour ; c’est tout ce que m’a laissé ma mère, et j’estime qu’aucun fils n’a r…
  2. Damedieu qui se trouvait dans une galerie se leva quand Martelli fit appel pour son numéro de voyance à un spectateur de bonne volonté.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bonne volonté"?
"bonne volonté" is spelled B-O-N-N-E- -V-O-L-O-N-T-É. The IPA pronunciation is \bɔn vo.lɔ̃.te\.
What does "bonne volonté" mean?
As a noun, "bonne volonté" means: Volonté de rendre service, de bien faire ou d’être serviable.
How do you pronounce "bonne volonté"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bonne volonté" is \bɔn vo.lɔ̃.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bonne volonté" come from?
"bonne volonté" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list