malveillant

\mal.vɛ.jɑ̃\

/\mal.vɛ.jɑ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“malveillant” has 15 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #31,592. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#31,592
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
15
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Porté à vouloir, à souhaiter du mal à autrui.

Corpus desk

Index FR-malveillant · malveillant · French

malveillant · rank #31,592 · 15 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #31,592
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 15 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH malicieux

Nearest frequency peer: malicieux (-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 « malveillant »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « malveillant » 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).

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

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

Key facts for malveillant
PropertyValue
Headwordmalveillant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\mal.vɛ.jɑ̃\
Letters11
Frequency rank#31,592
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « malveillant »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).malveillantse 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 « malicieux » (#31,591), « manivelle » (#31,593), « mairesse » (#31,590). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « malveillant » est au #31,592. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 15 spelling variants around malveillant (IPA \mal.vɛ.jɑ̃\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #31,592 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for malveillant, with forms such as "amlveillant", "malevillant", and "mallveillant". 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, "malveillants", "malveillante", "malveillance", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is malveillant, spelled M-A-L-V-E-I-L-L-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Porté à vouloir, à souhaiter du mal à autrui.
  2. 2
    Qui a de la malveillance.
  3. 3
    Où il y a de la malveillance.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les habitants des villas et des pavillons environnants passèrent rapidement de la curiosité malveillante à l’agression.
  2. Le code malveillant peut arriver dans des spams ou dans des messages d’hameçonnage, ou dans des courriels envoyés automatiquement par les ordinateurs de correspondants connus qui ont été infectés à leur insu.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amlveillant
  • malevillant
  • mallveillant
  • malveilalnt
  • malveilant
  • malveillannt
  • malveillantt
  • malveillatn
  • malveillnat
  • malvelilant
  • malviellant
  • malvveillant
  • mavleillant
  • mlaveillant
  • mmalveillant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of malveillant - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

amlveillant2malevillant2mallveillant1malveilalnt2malveilant1malveillannt1malveillantt1malveillatn2
Edit distance from "malveillant"

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 "malveillant"?
"malveillant" is spelled M-A-L-V-E-I-L-L-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \mal.vɛ.jɑ̃\.
What does "malveillant" mean?
As an adjective, "malveillant" means: Porté à vouloir, à souhaiter du mal à autrui.
What words are commonly confused with "malveillant"?
"malveillant" is commonly confused with "malveillants", "malveillante", "malveillance". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "malveillant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "malveillant" is \mal.vɛ.jɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "malveillant" come from?
"malveillant" 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 "malveillant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (15 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list