mal français
\mal fʁɑ̃.sɛ\
The verdict
“mal français” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. 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) - Syphilis.
Corpus desk
Index FR-mal-francais · mal français · French
mal français · 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 français |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mal fʁɑ̃.sɛ\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « mal français » en français
Rare enough to double-check
mal français is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \mal fʁɑ̃.sɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Syphilis.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for mal français, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is mal français, spelled M-A-L- -F-R-A-N-Ç-A-I-S.
Definition
- 1Syphilis.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mal français appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
LA maladie que nous apellons mal de Naples & les Italiens mal François , fut portée des Indes Occidentales ou nouueau monde par les Espagnols qui y allèrent premierement auec Christofle Colomb Genois, lesquels prindrent ce mal des femmes de l'isle que les Indiens apellent Haiti Quisqueia.
Cette maladie cruelle, que les Français appelèrent longtemps le mal de Naples, et les Italiens le mal français, avait été apportée sans doute à Naples par quelques Espagnols, qui l'avaient reçue des premiers compagnons que Cristophe Colomb avait ramené de son expédition d'Amérique.
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.