malsain

\mal.sɛ̃\

/\mal.sɛ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“malsain” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #16,410. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#16,410
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui n’est pas sain, qui a en soi le germe de quelque maladie.

Corpus desk

Index FR-malsain · malsain · French

malsain · rank #16,410 · 10 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #16,410
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH Marius

Nearest frequency peer: Marius (+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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « malsain »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « malsain » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

malsain vs marsan
71% similar
malsain vs maltais
71% similar
malsain vs malsaine
88% similar

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

Key facts for malsain
PropertyValue
Headwordmalsain
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\mal.sɛ̃\
Letters7
Frequency rank#16,410
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « malsain »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).malsainse 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 « Marius » (#16,411), « marquise » (#16,412), « lâcheté » (#16,407). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « malsain » est au #16,410. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around malsain (IPA \mal.sɛ̃\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #16,410 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for malsain, with forms such as "amlsain", "malasin", and "mallsain". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "marsan", "maltais", "malsaine", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is malsain, spelled M-A-L-S-A-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui n’est pas sain, qui a en soi le germe de quelque maladie.
  2. 2
    Qui est tourné vers les choses mauvaises, déraisonnables ; qui se complaît dans les mauvaises mœurs.
  3. 3
    Nuisible à la santé physique ou morale.
  4. 4
    Qui est caractérisé par sa négativité morbide.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il a l’apparence malsaine.
  2. J'avais beau me faire honte : plus que la honte, un goût malsain me retenait parmi ces êtres dont j'écoutais de loin les appels, les gémissements. […] ils me parvenaient sans ensemble mais souvent si fervents qu'ils réveillaient en moi d'inavouables appétits.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amlsain
  • malasin
  • mallsain
  • malsainn
  • malsani
  • malsian
  • malssain
  • maslain
  • mlasain
  • mmalsain

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of malsain - 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.

amlsain2malasin2mallsain1malsainn1malsani2malsian2malssain1maslain2
Edit distance from "malsain"

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 "malsain"?
"malsain" is spelled M-A-L-S-A-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \mal.sɛ̃\.
What does "malsain" mean?
As an adjective, "malsain" means: Qui n’est pas sain, qui a en soi le germe de quelque maladie.
What words are commonly confused with "malsain"?
"malsain" is commonly confused with "marsan", "maltais", "malsaine". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "malsain"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "malsain" is \mal.sɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "malsain" come from?
"malsain" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "malsain", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list