maelström
\mal.stʁøm\
The verdict
“maelström” is uncommon French (frequency #79,503 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,503
- frequency rank, French
- 5,038
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Variante de maëlstrom.
Corpus desk
Index FR-maelstrom · maelström · French
maelström · rank #79,503 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,503
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,038
- PHOTO-FINISH maestri
Nearest frequency peer: maestri (+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.
Rangs de longue queue près de « maelström »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- légitimant
légitimant
20,502 corpus weight
- madeira
madeira
20,500 corpus weight
- maelström
maelström
20,498 corpus weight
- maestri
maestri
20,497 corpus weight
- magnier
magnier
20,496 corpus weight
- Maguy
Maguy
20,495 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « maelström » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | maelström |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mal.stʁøm\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #79,503 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « maelström » en français
Rare enough to double-check
maelström is uncommon French at frequency #79,503 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \mal.stʁøm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Variante de maëlstrom.".
No misspelling variants are generated for maelström in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is maelström, spelled M-A-E-L-S-T-R-Ö-M.
Definition
- 1Variante de maëlstrom.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how maelström appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Paris est un maelström où tout se perd, et tout disparaît dans ce nombril du monde comme dans le nombril de la mer.
Au milieu de ce maelström des hautes sphères financières, les entreprises font le gros dos.
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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "maelström"?
What does "maelström" mean?
How do you pronounce "maelström"?
What language does "maelström" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "maelström", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).