malgré-nous
French, noun/mal.ɡʁe.nu/
malgré-nous is spelled M-A-L-G-R-É-N-O-U-S (10 letters). Malgré-nous is a French masculine noun meaning “someone forced into military service” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Nom donné aux Alsaciens et Mosellans enrôlés de force dans l’armée allemande durant la Seconde Guerre…”.
What does malgré-nous mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinesomeone forced into military service
- 2
masculineSoldiers from Alsace and Lorraine forced into German military service during WWI and WWII
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Nom donné aux Alsaciens et Mosellans enrôlés de force dans l’armée allemande durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce malgré-nous?
- /mal.ɡʁe.nu/
- \mal.ɡʁe nu\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.