porte-malheur
\pɔʁ.tma.lœʁ\
The verdict
“porte-malheur” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Chose qu’une crainte superstitieuse fait regarder comme ayant le pouvoir d’amener la malchance.
Corpus desk
Index FR-porte-malheur · porte-malheur · French
porte-malheur · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 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 | porte-malheur |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pɔʁ.tma.lœʁ\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « porte-malheur » en français
Rare enough to double-check
porte-malheur is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔʁ.tma.lœʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for porte-malheur, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
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 porte-malheur, spelled P-O-R-T-E---M-A-L-H-E-U-R.
Definition
- 1Chose qu’une crainte superstitieuse fait regarder comme ayant le pouvoir d’amener la malchance.
- 2Personne qu’une crainte superstitieuse fait regarder comme ayant le pouvoir d’amener la malchance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how porte-malheur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il y a telle circonstance fortuite que les joueurs regardent comme un porte-malheur.
Cet homme est un porte-malheur, un vrai porte-malheur.
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.