mal de Naples
\mal də napl\
The verdict
“mal de Naples” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Syphilis.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mal de Naples |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mal də napl\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mal de Naples” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for mal de Naples is 13 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \mal də napl\. 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: "Syphilis.".
mal de Naples has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is mal de Naples, spelled M-A-L- -D-E- -N-A-P-L-E-S.
Definition
- 1Syphilis.
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
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Using “mal de Naples”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is M-A-L- -D-E- -N-A-P-L-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \mal də napl\ (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
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.