manche à balai

\mɑ̃.ʃ‿a ba.lɛ\

/\mɑ̃.ʃ‿a ba.lɛ\/ noun

The verdict

“manche à balai” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Manche d'un balai.

Corpus desk

Index FR-manche-a-balai · manche à balai · French

manche à balai · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "M" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for manche à balai
PropertyValue
Headwordmanche à balai
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mɑ̃.ʃ‿a ba.lɛ\
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « manche à balai » en français

manche à balain'entre pas dans le top 100.000 du français: zone de termes techniques, archaïques ou rares.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

manche à balai is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \mɑ̃.ʃ‿a ba.lɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for manche à balai, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is manche à balai, spelled M-A-N-C-H-E- -À- -B-A-L-A-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Manche d'un balai.
  2. 2
    Manette de direction, levier de commande de l’avion. (par analogie de forme avec le manche d’un balai.)
  3. 3
    Dispositif de commande à plusieurs degrés de liberté servant à déplacer le curseur d’un écran de visualisation.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le corps, une espèce de manche à balai, décemment couvert d’une robe, jouissait des avantages de la nature morte, il ne remuait point.
  2. — Voilà encore ces vieilles folles qui se croient au sabbat, dit-il, et qui font plus de bruit que lorsqu’elles y arrivent à cheval sur un manche à balai.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "manche à balai"?
"manche à balai" is spelled M-A-N-C-H-E- -À- -B-A-L-A-I. The IPA pronunciation is \mɑ̃.ʃ‿a ba.lɛ\.
What does "manche à balai" mean?
As a noun, "manche à balai" means: Manche d'un balai.
How do you pronounce "manche à balai"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "manche à balai" is \mɑ̃.ʃ‿a ba.lɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "manche à balai" come from?
"manche à balai" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list