mesquinerie

\mɛs.kin.ʁi\

/\mɛs.kin.ʁi\/ noun

The verdict

“mesquinerie” is uncommon French (frequency #54,101 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,101
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Caractère de ce qui est mesquin.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mesquinerie · mesquinerie · French

mesquinerie · rank #54,101 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,101
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH menstruel

Nearest frequency peer: menstruel (-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 « mesquinerie »

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 « mesquinerie » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for mesquinerie
PropertyValue
Headwordmesquinerie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mɛs.kin.ʁi\
Letters11
Frequency rank#54,101
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « mesquinerie » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).mesquinerietombe 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: « menstruel » (#54,100), « Mendel » (#54,099), « mettions » (#54,103). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « mesquinerie » est au #54,101. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mesquinerie is uncommon French at frequency #54,101 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \mɛs.kin.ʁi\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for mesquinerie, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

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 mesquinerie, spelled M-E-S-Q-U-I-N-E-R-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Caractère de ce qui est mesquin.
  2. 2
    Médiocrité matérielle.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Avez-vous jamais vu une plus grande mesquinerie ?
  2. Il était bien obligé de s’avouer alors la mesquinerie de ses arguments, les méprisables raisons de ses résistances.

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 "mesquinerie"?
"mesquinerie" is spelled M-E-S-Q-U-I-N-E-R-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mɛs.kin.ʁi\.
What does "mesquinerie" mean?
As a noun, "mesquinerie" means: Caractère de ce qui est mesquin.
How do you pronounce "mesquinerie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mesquinerie" is \mɛs.kin.ʁi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mesquinerie" come from?
"mesquinerie" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mesquinerie", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list