mal-en-point
\ma.l‿ɑ̃ pwɛ̃\
The verdict
“mal-en-point” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - En mauvais état de santé, de fortune, dans une situation critique ou périlleuse.
Corpus desk
Index FR-mal-en-point · mal-en-point · French
mal-en-point · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mal-en-point |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ma.l‿ɑ̃ pwɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « mal-en-point » en français
Rare enough to double-check
mal-en-point is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \ma.l‿ɑ̃ pwɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "En mauvais état de santé, de fortune, dans une situation critique ou périlleuse.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for mal-en-point, 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.
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 mal-en-point, spelled M-A-L---E-N---P-O-I-N-T.
Definition
- 1En mauvais état de santé, de fortune, dans une situation critique ou périlleuse.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how mal-en-point appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La santé de cet homme a été très éprouvée, il est bien mal-en-point.
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.