mauvaise volonté

\mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\

/\mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\/ noun

The verdict

“mauvaise volonté” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
16
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Absence flagrante de volonté de bien faire ou d’être serviable.

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)

Where “mauvaise volonté” sits in French frequency

mauvaise volonté falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for mauvaise volonté is 16 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.

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.

Using “mauvaise volonté”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is M-A-U-V-A-I-S-E- -V-O-L-O-N-T-É - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \mɔ.vɛz vo.lɔ̃.te\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list