malle

\mal\

/\mal\/ noun

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

The verdict

“malle” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #18,528) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#18,528
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Coffre dont on se sert en voyage pour le transport de ses effets.

Corpus desk

Index FR-malle · malle · French

malle · rank #18,528 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #18,528
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mairies

Nearest frequency peer: mairies (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « malle »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « malle » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

malle vs mle
60% similar
malle vs Mlle
60% similar
malle vs mare
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for malle
PropertyValue
Headwordmalle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mal\
Letters5
Frequency rank#18,528
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « malle »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).mallese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « mairies » (#18,527), « Matignon » (#18,529), « maudits » (#18,530). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « malle » est au #18,528. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for malle is neighbouring look-alikes ("mle", "Mlle", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \mal\. Frequency #18,528 among 5,038 “M” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for malle, with forms such as "amlle", "malel", and "mlale". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mle", "Mlle", "mare", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is malle, spelled M-A-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Coffre dont on se sert en voyage pour le transport de ses effets.
  2. 2
    Malle-poste.
  3. 3
    Bateau qui emportait le courrier.
  4. 4
    Bateau qui effectuait la liaison régulière entre Douvres et Calais.
  5. 5
    Coffre de voiture.
  6. 6
    Courrier, poste.
  7. 7
    Endroit où l’on va récupérer le courrier, bureau de poste.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Deux grandes malles étaient ouvertes, au milieu de la chambre en désordre ; des paquets, des vêtements traînaient partout ; c’était une visite, vingt fois reprise, des meubles, des tiroirs.
  2. À toute allure les autobus, les omnibus et les charrettes de commissionnaires voituraient malles et valises vers la gare ; sur les quai envahis, l’exode des hiverneurs d’élite se heurtait à la bousculade des voyageurs de toute espèce.

This word in other languages

trunk(English)baúl(Español)Reisekoffer(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amlle
  • malel
  • mlale
  • mmalle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of malle - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

amlle2malel2mlale2mmalle1
Edit distance from "malle"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "malle"?
"malle" is spelled M-A-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mal\.
What does "malle" mean?
As a noun, "malle" means: Coffre dont on se sert en voyage pour le transport de ses effets.
What words are commonly confused with "malle"?
"malle" is commonly confused with "mle", "Mlle", "mare". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "malle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "malle" is \mal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "malle" come from?
"malle" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "malle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

laide#18,520movie#18,539Nixon#18,544imite#18,506

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list