il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre

\il n‿ɛ piʁ suʁ kə sə.lɥi ki nə vø pa.z‿ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\

/\il n‿ɛ piʁ suʁ kə sə.lɥi ki nə vø pa.z‿ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\/ phrase

The verdict

“il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a phrase - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
54
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) — Il est vain de chercher à convaincre quelqu’un qui ne veut pas entendre raison.

Key facts for il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre
PropertyValue
Headwordil n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPhrase
IPA\il n‿ɛ piʁ suʁ kə sə.lɥi ki nə vø pa.z‿ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\
Letters54
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre” sits in French frequency

il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre is 54 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \il n‿ɛ piʁ suʁ kə sə.lɥi ki nə vø pa.z‿ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Il est vain de chercher à convaincre quelqu’un qui ne veut pas entendre raison.".

No misspelling variants are generated for il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre, spelled I-L- -N-’-E-S-T- -P-I-R-E- -S-O-U-R-D- -Q-U-E- -C-E-L-U-I- -Q-U-I- -N-E- -V-E-U-T- -P-A-S- -E-N-T-E-N-D-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Il est vain de chercher à convaincre quelqu’un qui ne veut pas entendre raison.

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/il-n-est-pire-sourd-que-celui-qui-ne-veut-pas-entendre

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre"?
"il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre" is spelled I-L- -N-’-E-S-T- -P-I-R-E- -S-O-U-R-D- -Q-U-E- -C-E-L-U-I- -Q-U-I- -N-E- -V-E-U-T- -P-A-S- -E-N-T-E-N-D-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \il n‿ɛ piʁ suʁ kə sə.lɥi ki nə vø pa.z‿ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\.
What does "il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre" mean?
As a phrase, "il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre" means: Il est vain de chercher à convaincre quelqu’un qui ne veut pas entendre raison.
How do you pronounce "il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre" is \il n‿ɛ piʁ suʁ kə sə.lɥi ki nə vø pa.z‿ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre" come from?
"il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre" is a French 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.

Using “il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is I-L- -N-’-E-S-T- -P-I-R-E- -S-O-U-R-D- -Q-U-E- -C-E-L-U-I- -Q-U-I- -N-E- -V-E-U-T- -P-A-S- -E-N-T-E-N-D-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \il n‿ɛ piʁ suʁ kə sə.lɥi ki nə vø pa.z‿ɑ̃.tɑ̃dʁ\ (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

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter I in our French index:

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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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list