mauvaise volonté

\mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\

/\mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\/ noun

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency French
16
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Absence flagrante de volonté de bien faire ou d’être serviable.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mauvaise-volonte · mauvaise volonté · French

mauvaise volonté · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 16 letters
  • VOW-8 8 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 mauvaise volonté
PropertyValue
Headwordmauvaise volonté
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\
Letters16
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « mauvaise volonté » en français

mauvaise volontésiège au-delà des 100.000 formes les plus fréquentes du français, dans la traîne du lexique spécialisé ou peu usité.

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

Rare enough to double-check

mauvaise volonté is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Absence flagrante de volonté de bien faire ou d’être serviable.".

mauvaise volonté doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

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 mauvaise volonté, spelled M-A-U-V-A-I-S-E- -V-O-L-O-N-T-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Absence flagrante de volonté de bien faire ou d’être serviable.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La mauvaise volonté des événements s’était annoncée de longue date.
  2. C'était un grand Noir filiforme qui semblait plein de nonchalance et de mauvaise volonté, bien qu'il portât une tunique à boutons et des culottes de nègre de maison.

Antonyms

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 "mauvaise volonté"?
"mauvaise volonté" is spelled M-A-U-V-A-I-S-E- -V-O-L-O-N-T-É. The IPA pronunciation is \mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\.
What does "mauvaise volonté" mean?
As a noun, "mauvaise volonté" means: Absence flagrante de volonté de bien faire ou d’être serviable.
How do you pronounce "mauvaise volonté"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mauvaise volonté" is \mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mauvaise volonté" come from?
"mauvaise volonté" 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