mal de tête

\mal də tɛt\

/\mal də tɛt\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency French
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Douleur locale ressentie au niveau de la boîte crânienne ou parfois de la nuque.

Key facts for mal de tête
PropertyValue
Headwordmal de tête
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mal də tɛt\
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “mal de tête” sits in French frequency

mal de tête 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.

Rare enough to double-check

mal de tête is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \mal də tɛt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Douleur locale ressentie au niveau de la boîte crânienne ou parfois de la nuque.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for mal de tête, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is mal de tête, spelled M-A-L- -D-E- -T-Ê-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Douleur locale ressentie au niveau de la boîte crânienne ou parfois de la nuque.

Synonyms

céphalée

This word in other languages

headache(English)dolor de cabeza(Español)Kopfschmerz(Deutsch)

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 "mal de tête"?
"mal de tête" is spelled M-A-L- -D-E- -T-Ê-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mal də tɛt\.
What does "mal de tête" mean?
As a noun, "mal de tête" means: Douleur locale ressentie au niveau de la boîte crânienne ou parfois de la nuque.
How do you pronounce "mal de tête"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mal de tête" is \mal də tɛt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mal de tête" come from?
"mal de tête" 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 “mal de tête”

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

  • The one correct French spelling is M-A-L- -D-E- -T-Ê-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \mal də tɛt\ (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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list