manichéen

\ma.ni.ke.ɛ̃\

/\ma.ni.ke.ɛ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“manichéen” is uncommon French (frequency #59,424 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,424
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Relatif au manichéisme.

Corpus desk

Index FR-manicheen · manichéen · French

manichéen · rank #59,424 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,424
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mande

Nearest frequency peer: mande (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « manichéen »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « manichéen » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for manichéen
PropertyValue
Headwordmanichéen
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ma.ni.ke.ɛ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#59,424
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « manichéen » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).manichéentombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « mande » (#59,423), « manichéenne » (#59,425), « mandarins » (#59,422). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « manichéen » est au #59,424. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

manichéen is uncommon French at frequency #59,424 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ma.ni.ke.ɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for manichéen in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is manichéen, spelled M-A-N-I-C-H-É-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Relatif au manichéisme.
  2. 2
    Relatif aux dualistes bogomiles, dont les cathares.
  3. 3
    Qui analyse tout situation en séparant sans nuance les idées et les protagonistes entre un camp du Bien et un camp du Mal.
  4. 4
    Relatif au manichéen (alphabet consonantique).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le dogme fondamental de toutes les sectes manichéennes, c’est la nature divine ou angélique de l’âme, prisonnière des formes créées et de la nuit de la matière.
  2. La renaissance d’un certain patriotisme de clocher se traduisit par la prolifération des sectes manichéennes et millénaristes.

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); 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 "manichéen"?
"manichéen" is spelled M-A-N-I-C-H-É-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.ni.ke.ɛ̃\.
What does "manichéen" mean?
As an adjective, "manichéen" means: Relatif au manichéisme.
How do you pronounce "manichéen"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "manichéen" is \ma.ni.ke.ɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "manichéen" come from?
"manichéen" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "manichéen", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list