manche-à-balle
\mɑ̃ʃ.a.bal\
The verdict
“manche-à-balle” 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) - Imbécile, maladroit.
Corpus desk
Index FR-manche-a-balle · manche-à-balle · French
manche-à-balle · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-5 5 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | manche-à-balle |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \mɑ̃ʃ.a.bal\ |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « manche-à-balle » en français
Rare enough to double-check
manche-à-balle is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \mɑ̃ʃ.a.bal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
manche-à-balle has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 manche-à-balle, spelled M-A-N-C-H-E---À---B-A-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Imbécile, maladroit.
- 2Étudiant fayot.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how manche-à-balle appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
C'est complètement idiot, vous raisonnez comme un manche.
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.