malveillance

\mal.vɛ.jɑ̃s\

/\mal.vɛ.jɑ̃s\/ noun

The verdict

“malveillance” has 16 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #33,773. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#33,773
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
16
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mauvaise volonté pour les hommes en général ou pour quelqu’un en particulier.

Corpus desk

Index FR-malveillance · malveillance · French

malveillance · rank #33,773 · 16 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #33,773
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 16 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH maladroits

Nearest frequency peer: maladroits (-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 « malveillance »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « malveillance » 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).

malveillance vs malveillant
83% similar
malveillance vs malveillants
83% similar
malveillance vs malveillante
92% similar

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

Key facts for malveillance
PropertyValue
Headwordmalveillance
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mal.vɛ.jɑ̃s\
Letters12
Frequency rank#33,773
Misspellings tracked16
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « malveillance »

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « maladroits » (#33,772), « malveillants » (#33,774), « majorités » (#33,771). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « malveillance » est au #33,773. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 16 spelling variants around malveillance (IPA \mal.vɛ.jɑ̃s\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #33,773 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for malveillance, with forms such as "amlveillance", "malevillance", and "mallveillance". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "malveillant", "malveillants", "malveillante", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is malveillance, spelled M-A-L-V-E-I-L-L-A-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mauvaise volonté pour les hommes en général ou pour quelqu’un en particulier.
  2. 2
    Acte criminel ayant pour objectif de nuire à autrui.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. En me voyant, le colonel parut un peu gêné, et je crus m’apercevoir qu’il baissait la voix pour m’adresser la parole en français. Autour de nous, on chuchotait : « Frantzose… Frantzose… » Je sentais de la malveillance dans tous les yeux.
  2. Pas la moindre festivité non plus, le 14 Juillet, à VIRIAT (Ain). Mais il ne faut pas y voir la moindre malveillance à l'égard de la République. On a l'habitude, ici, de célébrer le 14 Juillet... le 1ᵉʳ dimanche d'août !

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amlveillance
  • malevillance
  • mallveillance
  • malveilalnce
  • malveilance
  • malveillacne
  • malveillancce
  • malveillanec
  • malveillannce
  • malveillnace
  • malvelilance
  • malviellance
  • malvveillance
  • mavleillance
  • mlaveillance
  • mmalveillance

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of malveillance - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

amlveillance2malevillance2mallveillance1malveilalnce2malveilance1malveillacne2malveillancce1malveillanec2
Edit distance from "malveillance"

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 "malveillance"?
"malveillance" is spelled M-A-L-V-E-I-L-L-A-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mal.vɛ.jɑ̃s\.
What does "malveillance" mean?
As a noun, "malveillance" means: Mauvaise volonté pour les hommes en général ou pour quelqu’un en particulier.
What words are commonly confused with "malveillance"?
"malveillance" is commonly confused with "malveillant", "malveillants", "malveillante". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "malveillance"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "malveillance" is \mal.vɛ.jɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "malveillance" come from?
"malveillance" 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 "malveillance", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (16 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list