malévole

\ma.le.vɔl\

/\ma.le.vɔl\/ adj

The verdict

“malévole” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - ou Malveillant ; malintentionné.

Corpus desk

Index FR-malevole · malévole · French

malévole · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 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.

Key facts for malévole
PropertyValue
Headwordmalévole
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ma.le.vɔl\
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « malévole » en français

malévolesiège au-delà des 100.000 formes les plus fréquentes du français, dans la traîne du lexique spécialisé ou peu usité.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

malévole is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ma.le.vɔl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "ou Malveillant ; malintentionné.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for malévole, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is malévole, spelled M-A-L-É-V-O-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    ou Malveillant ; malintentionné.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how malévole appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Je me rappelle qu’au moyen âge la gorge chez les femmes n’était pas à la mode, celles qui avaient le malheur d’en avoir portaient des corsets qui la comprimaient et la dissimulaient autant que possible. Le lecteur trouve peut-être ce souvenir un peu leste : je ne prends pas ce ton par recherche et comme moyen d’esprit, Dieu m’en garde ! mais je prétends a…
  2. Plus que la guerre des chefs, ce qui me frappe en ces lieux, c'est la critique du chef, et des chefs. En cabinet ministériel, j'étais l'un des rares esprits ouvertement malévoles. On me passait ma sincérité, je suis Plume, donc artiste, et pour tout dire, bouffon. À l'Élysée, fin de la bien-pensance et du militantisme béat. Le mauvais esprit y est un spor…

Synonyms

Antonyms

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 "malévole"?
"malévole" is spelled M-A-L-É-V-O-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.le.vɔl\.
What does "malévole" mean?
As an adjective, "malévole" means: ou Malveillant ; malintentionné.
How do you pronounce "malévole"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "malévole" is \ma.le.vɔl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "malévole" come from?
"malévole" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list