pince-maille
\pɛ̃s.mɑj\
The verdict
“pince-maille” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Homme fort attaché à ses intérêts et qui fait paraître son avarice jusque dans les plus petites choses.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pince-maille · pince-maille · French
pince-maille · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pince-maille |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pɛ̃s.mɑj\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « pince-maille » en français
Rare enough to double-check
pince-maille is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɛ̃s.mɑj\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Homme fort attaché à ses intérêts et qui fait paraître son avarice jusque dans les plus petites choses.".
pince-maille has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is pince-maille, spelled P-I-N-C-E---M-A-I-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Homme fort attaché à ses intérêts et qui fait paraître son avarice jusque dans les plus petites choses.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pince-maille appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Un pince-maille avoit tant amassé, Qu’il ne savoit où loger sa finance. L’avarice, compagne et sœur de l’ignorance, Le rendoit fort embarrassé Dans le choix d’un dépositaire […]
Des pince-maille sont des personnes qui pincent, qui ne négligent pas une maille. Ainsi les pince-maille sont de deux ou trois degrés plus ladres, plus avides que les grippe-sou.
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.