Which to use
“malchance” is a noun and “malchanceux” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,796
- “malchance” frequency rank
- #34,175
- “malchanceux” frequency rank
- 52971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malchance | malchanceux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mauvaise chance, suite de mésaventures, revers dus à un hasard malheureux. | Qui a de la malchance. |
Where the eye mixes malchance and malchanceux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. malchance runs 9 letters (CVCCCVCCV) against malchanceux's 11 (CVCCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses malchance with malchanceux
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malchance is \mal.ʃɑ̃s\ while malchanceux is \mal.ʃɑ̃.sø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “malchance” sits inside “malchanceux”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malchance is recorded at frequency rank #18,796, classified as anoun, pronounced \mal.ʃɑ̃s\. malchanceux is at rank #34,175, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mal.ʃɑ̃.sø\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 52971, this pair ranks #144,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malchance vs malchanceux
Shared letters: acehlmn. Private to "malchance": -. Private to "malchanceux": ux.
"malchance" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCCV · "malchanceux" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- malchance ← amlchance · maclhance · malcahnce · malcchance · malchacne · malchancce · malchanec · malchannce
- malchanceux ← amlchanceux · maclhanceux · malcahnceux · malcchanceux · malchacneux · malchancceux · malchanceuxx · malchancexu
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "malchance" and "malchanceux" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "malchance" or "malchanceux" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "malchance" and "malchanceux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "malchance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malchanceux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malchance" and "malchanceux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malchance vs marchande". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #144,000 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.