fléau
French
Etymology
From Old French flaiel, flael, flayau, inherited from Latin flagellum.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fle.o/
audio (file)
Noun
fléau m (plural fléaux)
- a flail, either tool or weapon
- a scourge; a curse, a calamity or a plague
- 2020 June 19, “Stopper la haine sur Internet”, in Le Monde:
- La haine en ligne est un fléau d’une immense ampleur.
- Online hatred is a scourge of immense scale.
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- (mechanics) the beam of a mechanical balance
Related terms
- flageller
Further reading
- “fléau”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.