misère

\mi.zɛʁ\

/\mi.zɛʁ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“misère” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,354. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,354
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Condition, état de celui qui inspire la pitié.

Corpus desk

Index FR-misere · misère · French

misère · rank #4,354 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,354
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mince

Nearest frequency peer: mince (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « misère »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « misère » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

misère vs musée
50% similar
misère vs mises
50% similar
misère vs mixer
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for misère
PropertyValue
Headwordmisère
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mi.zɛʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#4,354
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « misère »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).misèrese place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « mince » (#4,353), « Nancy » (#4,355), « merveilleux » (#4,352). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « misère » est au #4,354. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around misère (IPA \mi.zɛʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,354 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for misère, with forms such as "imsère", "misere", and "misrèe". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "musée", "mises", "mixer", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is misère, spelled M-I-S-È-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Condition, état de celui qui inspire la pitié.
  2. 2
    État de faiblesse et de néantise de l’homme.
  3. 3
    Privation des choses nécessaires à la vie.
  4. 4
    Au XVIIIᵉ siècle, chanson anonyme décrivant les épreuves et malheurs de certaines professions.
  5. 5
    Bagatelle, chose de peu d’importance et de valeur.
  6. 6
    Pénis.
  7. 7
    Nom usuel de diverses plantes ornementale du genre Tradescantia, de la famille des commélinacées.
  8. 8
    Difficulté. → voir avoir de la misère
  9. 9
    Malchance.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. L’attitude de la théologie chrétienne à l’égard des juifs a été fixée dans le début du IVᵉ siècle (concile de Nicée, 325) : le judaïsme ne doit pas disparaître, il doit vivre, mais dans un état d’avilissement et de misère tel qu’il fasse nettement apparaître aux yeux des croyants comme des incroyants le châtiment infligé par Dieu à ceux qui n’ont pas voul…
  2. […] il est également dangereux à l'homme de connaître Dieu sans connaître sa misère, et de connaître sa misère sans connaître le Rédempteur qui peut l'en guérir.

This word in other languages

misery(English)miseria(Español)Elend(Deutsch)miséria(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • imsère
  • misere
  • misrèe
  • missère
  • misèer
  • misèrre
  • mièsre
  • mmisère
  • msière

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of misère - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

imsère2misere1misrèe2missère1misèer2misèrre1mièsre2mmisère1
Edit distance from "misère"

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 "misère"?
"misère" is spelled M-I-S-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mi.zɛʁ\.
What does "misère" mean?
As a noun, "misère" means: Condition, état de celui qui inspire la pitié.
What words are commonly confused with "misère"?
"misère" is commonly confused with "musée", "mises", "mixer". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "misère"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "misère" is \mi.zɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "misère" come from?
"misère" 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 "misère", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mentir#4,350master#4,349marier#4,348leçons#4,346

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

portait9 variantsfatigue9 variantsdiffusé9 variantsveuillez9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list