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Clipping of English Malayalam or Malayalam മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ).

mal

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Malayalam.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Malayalam terms

• IPA^(key): /mæl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æl

Borrowed from French mal (“illness”). Doublet of malus.

mal (plural mals)

1. (only in set phrases) illness, affliction.

   a grand mal seizure

• (illness): grand mal, petit mal, mal de mer, mal du Suisse

• Mal

Clipping of malibu.

mal (plural mals)

1. (surfing) A longboard (type of surfboard).

• mini-mal

Clipping of malleolus.

mal (plural mals)

1. (medicine, informal) A malleolus.

   lateral mal

• ALM, AML, LAM, Lam, Lam., M.L.A., MLA, alm, lam

From Dutch mal, from Middle Dutch mal.

mal (attributive mal, comparative maller, superlative malste)

1. crazy

   Synonym: gek

• malheid

• mol — southern Gheg
• mall
• malj

From Proto-Albanian *mal̄, from Pre-Proto-Albanian *malnə, from Proto-Indo-European *mĺ̥h₃nu- (“mountain”), from older *mólh₃nu- (“the emerging one”), from the root *melh₃-.^[1]

Orel's reconstruction of Proto-Albanian *mala- cannot be accepted as it would have led to Albanian *mall. For the same reason, Demiraj's reconstruction of *m(o)lH-i- cannot be accepted either.

Although the thematic precursor *mólh₃nos has found widespread acceptance, it is most likely that mal follows a u-stem precursor, *mólh₃nus, as an *-os ending should lead to an -ë ending. This also supports the plural form male, which is feminine, unlike the masculine singular.

Preserved in patronyms, ethnonym malësor (“highlander, mountaineer”), in toponym (historical and ethnographic region) Malësia (north Albania and Montenegro). In Kosovo (Malishevë, Gjilan, Mališevo, Prizren), in Serbia (Maleševo (Golubac), Maleševo (Rekovac)) and the name of Maleshevo Mountain (North Macedonia and Bulgaria).^[2]

• IPA^(key): [mal] (Standard, Tosk)

mal m (plural male, definite mali, definite plural malet)

1. mount

   Mali i Korabit ― Mount Korab

2. mountain

   Synonym: bjeshkë

3. (northeastern Gheg) forest
4. large amount of something

   Kam marrë një mal me letra. ― I've received a lot of papers.

• majë

• Aromanian: mal, meal
• Romanian: mal (“shore”)

• Jani Thomai et al. (2006), “mal”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), Tiranë: Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë

• (Western) IPA^(key): /ˈmal/

mal

1. to do

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

• malu

Cognate to Daco-Romanian mal. From Proto-Albanian *mala (“mountain”) (Albanian mal). Proto-Albanian *mal- reflecting an ancient Balkan toponym.^[1][2][3][4] See Albanian mal (“mountain”) for more.

mal

1. shore
2. pile, heap

• meal

From Arabic مَال (māl, “property”).

• IPA^(key): [mɑɫ]

• Audio (Baku):

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mal (definite accusative malı, plural mallar)

1. property

   Synonym: əmlak

2. goods, ware, commodity, product

   Synonyms: məhsul, (formal) əmtəə

   Çindən gətirilən mallar ― goods imported from China

3. (colloquial) cargo
4. cattle, livestock
5. cow

   Synonym: inək

6. beef (mostly in combination with ət (“meat”))

   mal əti ― beef

7. (colloquial, by extension) a dumb, dull person; an idiot

   Nə var, mal kimi durmusan orada? ― Don't stand there like an idiot!

8. (colloquial, derogatory, by extension) a well-fed, plump woman
9. (slang) recreational drug
   • 2016 June 6, “#iricapli [#largecalibered]”, in Uran, Xpert, ZiqZaq, Paster (lyrics), Drek (music), #UranFM‎^[4], performed by Uran, Xpert, ZiqZaq, and Paster:

     Çoxdur orada-burada, bas maldan, hallan / Çaqqal, qırdım xaltanı, bayraqdan sallan

     There are a lot of them everywhere, take the stuff, get high / I broke your collar, bitch, hang down from the flag

• Orucov, Əliheydər, editor (2006), “mal”, in Azərbaycan dilinin izahlı lüğəti [Explanatory Dictionary of the Azerbaijani Language]‎^[5] (in Azerbaijani), 2nd edition, volume 3, Baku: Şərq-Qərb

• IPA^(key): /ma˨˦/

From Proto-Tai *ʰmaːᴬ (“to come”). Cognate with Thai มา (maa), Northern Thai ᨾᩣ (ma), Lao ມາ (mā), Lü ᦙᦱ (maa), Ahom 𑜉𑜠 (ma), 𑜉𑜡 (mā), 𑜉𑜡𑜠 (māa), Zhuang maz.

mal

1. to come

From Proto-Tai *ʰmaːᴬ (“dog”). Cognate with Thai หมา, Lao ໝາ (mā), Lü ᦖᦱ (ṁaa), Shan မႃ (mǎa), Zhuang ma.

mal

1. dog

• duezmal

mal

1. water

• R. Blench, The Rukul language of Central Nigeria and its affinities (2006) (mentions this word in notes)

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central, Valencia, Northwestern) [ˈmal]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al

From Old Catalan mal, from Latin malus.

mal m (plural mals)

1. evil, bad

   Antonym: bé

2. illness

   Synonym: malaltia

• malícia

From Old Catalan mal, from Latin male.

mal

1. badly, poorly

   Synonym: malament

   Antonym: bé

• anar a mal borràs
• malestar
• prendre mal

mal (feminine mala, masculine plural mals, feminine plural males)

1. bad, poor

   Synonym: dolent

   Antonym: bo

• a males
• mala herba
• malament

• “mal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “mal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “mal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “mal”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Borrowed from Spanish mal, apocopic form of malo (“evil”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmal/ [ˈmal̪]

mal

1. (billiards) a foul

mal

1. (billiards) to commit a foul

From Middle High German māl, from Old High German māl, from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą (“measurement; time; meal”). Cognate with German Mal, Mahl, English meal.

mal n

1. (Luserna) meal

• malzait

• “mal” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.

From Arabic مال (māl, “property”).

mal

1. article, product
2. cattle, livestocks

• “mal”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

• mul

From Latin malus.

mal

1. evil, harm

mal

1. imperative of male

First attested in the seventeenth century. Ultimately derived from Old French molle, by-form of modle, an old (11th century) borrowing from Latin modulus (“measure”). Doublet of module and modulus.

• Rhymes: -ɑl

• Audio:

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• IPA^(key): /mɑl/

mal f (plural mallen, diminutive malletje n)

1. mold, cast (device to help creating shapes)

• → Norwegian Bokmål: mal
• → Papiamentu: malchi, maltsje (from the diminutive)
• → Russian: малка (malka)
• → Swedish: mall
  • → Finnish: malli

From Middle Dutch mal, of uncertain origin. Cognate with German malle. Possibly related to French mal (“bad”) or Dutch malen (“to grind, crush”) in the sense "broken, twisted."

mal (comparative maller, superlative malst)

1. foolish, crazy, lacking common sense

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:gek

Declension of mal
uninflected	mal
inflected	malle
comparative	maller
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		mal	maller	het malst het malste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	malle	mallere	malste
	n. sing.	mal	maller	malste
	plural	malle	mallere	malste
definite		malle	mallere	malste
partitive		mals	mallers	—

• Afrikaans: mal

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “mal¹”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute
• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “mal²”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

• lam

Borrowed from Malay mahal. Compare Central Bikol mahal and Tagalog mahal.

mal

1. expensive

   Antonym: barato

• IPA^(key): /mal/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Agen)):

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Paris)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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From Old French mal, from Latin malus, possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“bad, wrong”). Near cognates include Portuguese mal, Italian male and Spanish malo.

mal m (plural maux)

1. (as in the phrase: avoir du mal) trouble, difficulty

   Synonyms: problème, emmerde, misère, difficulté

   J'ai du mal à m'imaginer ça. ― I have trouble imagining that.

2. pain

   Synonym: douleur

   J'ai mal à la tête. ― I have a headache. (literally, “I have pain at the head.”)

   • 1986, “Il était une fois … une maison des musiciens [There Once Was… a House of Musicians]”, in Il était une fois … une petite grenouille [There Once Was… a Little Frog] (fiction), Paris: CLE International:

     Aïe, j'ai mal au bras !
     Ouille, j'ai mal aux dents! Et toi, le lit, tu n'as pas mal aux pieds ?
     Non, mais j'ai mal à la tête.
     Moi, j'ai mal aux oreilles !

     Argh, my arms hurt!
     Oww, my teeth hurt! How about you, bed, don't your legs hurt?
     No, it's my head that hurts.
     As for me, my ears hurt!

3. evil

   Le philosophe abordait de grandes questions du bon et du mal. ― The philosopher discussed broad questions of good and evil.

4. damage, harm

   Synonyms: tort, dommage

   Le mal est fait. ― The damage is done.

• malice

• → English: mal

From Old French, from Latin male.

mal

1. badly

   C'est mal fait. ― It's done badly.

mal (feminine male, masculine plural maux, feminine plural males)

1. (in set phrases and limited constructions) bad

   bon an, mal an ― good year, bad year

   bon gré, mal gré ― willy-nilly (literally, “good will, bad will”)

   Il est mal de [infinitive] ― It’s wrong to [infinitive]

   C'est mal de [infinitive] ― It’s wrong to [infinitive]

• mauvais
• méchant
• vilain
• laid
• merdique (vulgar slang)

• “mal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• AML

• IPA^(key): /ˈmal/ [ˈmɑɫ]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: mal

From Old Galician-Portuguese mal, from Latin male.

mal

1. badly

   Antonym: ben

From Old Galician-Portuguese mal, from Latin malum.

mal m (plural males)

1. misfortune
2. bad; evil
3. sickness; disease

mal m sg

1. (before the noun) apocopic form of malo

Attested since circa 1300 (máále), from Latin manualis (“manual”). Cognate with Portuguese mangual.

• malle, mallo, manle, manlle

mal m (plural males)

1. flail
   • c. 1300, R. Martínez López, editor, General Estoria. Versión gallega del siglo XIV, Oviedo: Archivum, page 271:

     cõmo faz a lyma ao ferro, et a fornaz ao ouro que o purga et esmera et o faz puro et paresçe mellor, et cõmo faz outrosi o máále áá messe que a degrana em çeueyra et parte a palla do graão que e o mellor

     as the file does to iron, and the furnace to gold, that purges and cleans it and makes it pure and looks better; and also as the flail does to the harvest, that threshes it into sustenance and parts the straw and the grain, which is the best part

   • 1474, Antonio López Ferreiro, editor, Galicia Histórica. Colección diplomática, Santiago: Tipografía Galaica, page 67:

     Iten, preçaron hun maal en tres maravedis

     Item, they appraised a flail in three coins

2. handle of the flail

   Synonyms: mango, mangueira, moca

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “mal”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “mal”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Santamarina, editor (2006–2013), “mal”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Santamarina, Ernesto X. González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “mal”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “mal”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

From the noun Mal (“time”). Partly shortened from einmal, which is also derived from the noun.

• IPA^(key): /maːl/ (standard)
• IPA^(key): /ma/ (colloquial)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Homophones: Mahl, Mal, mahl
• Rhymes: -aːl

mal

1. (mathematics) times (indicating multiplication of two numbers)

   sechs mal sieben ist zweiundvierzig

   six times seven is forty-two

2. (informal) alternative form of einmal (“sometime, ever, once”)

   Wenn du in Köln bist, musst du mal bei deiner Tante anrufen.

   When you’re in Cologne, you must call your aunt sometime.

3. (informal) well, by the way (serving to introduce new information)

   Ich geh mal zum Kaffeestand.

   Well, I’m off to the coffee stall.

   (going to the coffee stall was not discussed at the moment)

4. (informal) Softening a sentence, thus making a request or command more polite, making an assertion more casual. By extension, indicating a command or request.

   Haben Sie mal Feuer?

   Do you have a lighter [please]?

   (can not imply that the asker is offering their lighter)

   Haste Feuer?

   D'ya have a lighter?

   (may imply that the asker is offering their lighter)

   Du musst mal deine Tante anrufen.

   You've got to call your aunt.

   (urging to do it now or very soon)

• For the request softener sense compare Dutch eens, French un peu.

• Malrechnung
• schon mal (schomma)

mal

1. singular imperative of malen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of malen

• “mal (Adverb)” in Duden online
• “mal (Konjunktion)” in Duden online
• “mal (Partikel)” in Duden online
• “mal”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[6] (in German)

From Portuguese mal. Cognate with Kabuverdianu mal.

mal

1. bad

• mau

• IPA^(key): [ˈmaːl]
• Rhymes: -aːl

From mala (“to purr”).

mal n (genitive singular mals, no plural)

1. purr

See malur.

mal

1. indefinite accusative singular of malur

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈmal/ [ˈmal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: mal

From Malay mal.

mal (plural mal-mal)

1. head

   Synonym: kepala

2. top (of kris)

   Synonym: ganja

3. bottom (of a blade)

   Synonym: pangkal

From Malay mal, from Arabic مَال (māl).

mal (plural mal-mal)

1. treasure

   Synonyms: khazanah, harta benda

2. synonym of dana

From Dutch mal (“mold, cast”), from Old French modle, from Latin modulus (“measure”). Doublet of modulus.

mal (plural mal-mal)

1. mold, cast

   Synonyms: acuan, cetakan

2. pattern

   Synonym: pola

From English mall.

mal (plural mal-mal)

1. shopping centre, mall

   Synonyms: plaza, pusat belanja, pusat perbelanjaan, pusat beli belah (Standard Malay)

• “mal”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

From Latin malus.

mal (comparative pejor, superlative le pejor or le pessime)

1. bad
2. evil

mal (comparative plus mal, superlative le plus mal)

1. badly, poorly
2. wrongfully

mal (plural males)

1. bad, badness, something bad
2. evil
3. illness
4. pain, ache

mal m (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of male

From Portuguese mal.

mal

1. bad

• mau

Possibly from Sanskrit महार्घ (mahārgha) via Malay mahal. Compare Tagalog mahal, Central Bikol mahal, Cebuano mahal, Asi mahay, and Javanese ꦩꦲꦭ꧀ (mahal).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmal/ [ˈmaːl]
• Hyphenation: mal

mál

1. dear; precious; cherished

   Synonyms: maulaga, lugud, ingatanan

2. expensive; high-priced

   Synonym: magastus

   Antonym: mura

3. (obsolete) grave; serious

   Synonyms: kamal, grabe

mál

1. beloved

   Synonyms: lugud, irug, wili, sinta

2. expensive items

mal

1. inflection of malt:
   1. second-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Akin to Italian male, from Latin malus.

mal

1. bad

• IPA^(key): /māl/

mal

1. heart

• Blench, Robert; Bulkaam, Michael (2021) An Introduction to Mantsi, a South Bauchi language of Central Nigeria. University of Cambridge.

mal

1. alternative form of male (“male”)

mal

1. alternative form of male (“male”)

From Old French mal.

mal m (plural maulx)

1. bad act

• French: mal
  • → English: mal

mal m (feminine singular male or malle, masculine plural maulx, feminine plural males or malles)

1. bad; evil

• French: mal

mal

1. evilly; badly; poorly

• French: mal

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈmal/

mal

1. second-person singular present imperative of malen

From Old Norse mál (“(legal) cause”).

• IPA^(key): /maːl/

mal m

1. tax

• Welsh: mâl

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “mâl”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

By a reinterpretation of ual as a form that has undergone soft mutation.

mal

1. alternative form of ual

mal

1. alternative form of ual

From Old French mal, from Latin male.

mal

1. (Guernsey) badly

mal

1. (Guernsey) bad

From an earlier *man, from Proto-Iranian *dmáHnaH.

mal f

1. home
2. family, dynasty, house

From Dutch mal.

mal m (definite singular malen, indefinite plural maler, definite plural malene)

1. a template

mal

1. imperative of male

• “mal” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Dutch mal.

mal m (definite singular malen, indefinite plural malar, definite plural malane)

1. a template

mal

1. imperative of mala

• “mal” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• maal

• IPA^(key): /mɑːl/
• Rhymes: -ɑːl

From Proto-Germanic *mailą.

māl n

1. mole (spot on the skin)
2. mark, spot

Strong a-stem:

• Middle English: mal, mole, mool
  • English: mole
  • Scots: mail, mold

From Old Norse mál (“(legal) cause”).

māl n

1. a suit, legal case, prosecution, defense

• friþmāl
• wiþermāl

• Middle English: mal, male
  • English: mail
  • Scots: mail

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “mál”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

From Latin male.

mal

1. evilly
2. badly; poorly

• Middle French: mal
  • French: mal
    • → English: mal

From Latin malus.

mal oblique singular, m (oblique plural maus or max or mals, nominative singular maus or max or mals, nominative plural mal)

1. evil
2. pain, suffering

• Middle French: mal
  • French: mal
    • → English: mal

mal m (feminine male, comparative peior, superlative peior)

1. bad (undesirable; not good)

• Middle French: mal
  • French: mal
    • → English: mal

From Latin male (“badly; wrongly”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmal/
• Rhymes: -al

mal

1. badly

• Fala: mal
• Galician: mal
• Portuguese: mal (see there for further descendants)

From Latin malus. Gallo-Romance cognate with Old French mal.

mal

1. bad (negative)
2. bad (evil)

• Occitan: mal

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “malus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 6/1: Mabile–Mephitis, pages 123–128

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /mal/

mal f (Arabic spelling مل)

1. goats

• Henrik Liljegren; Naseem Haider (2011), “mal”, in Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)‎^[7], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Homophone: mau (Brazil)
• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: mal

From Old Galician-Portuguese mal, from Latin male (“badly; wrongly”).

• mar (eye dialect spelling, representing Caipira Portuguese)

mal (comparable, comparative pior)

1. badly (in a faulty, dysfunctional or incorrect manner)

   O carro está a funcionar/funcionando bem mal.

   The car is running pretty badly.

   (O) João fala inglês mal.

   John speaks English badly.

2. (preceding verbs) hardly; barely

   Ele mal consegue estudar com todo este barulho.

   He can hardly study with all this noise.

3. wrong (incorrect)

   A resposta está mal.

   The answer is wrong.

4. unfavourably (in an unfavourable manner)

   Penso mal de ti.

   I think unfavourably of you.

   Ele fala mal de ti.

   He speaks unfavourably of you.

5. (in compounds) evilly

   mal-assombrado ― haunted (literally, “evilly-shadowed”)

   mal-agourado ― cursed (literally, “evilly-foreboded”)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:mal.

• mamente, malmente

mal

1. have/had just; have/had barely

   Mal tinha saído quando a encontrei.

   I had barely gone out when I found her.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:mal.

From Latin malus. Compare Italian male, Sicilian mali.

mal m (plural males)

1. (uncountable) evil (malevolent forces or behaviour)

   As forças do mal cercaram o castelo.

   The forces of evil sieged the castle.

2. harm

   Ela não fez por mal.

   She meant no harm.

   Não faz mal.

   No problem. (It does not matter.)

3. malady (any ailment or disease, especially a lingering one)

   mal de Parkinson

   Parkinson's disease

   Males como a SIDA e pneumonia são mortais.

   Illnesses such as AIDS and pneumonia are deadly.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:mal.

• (sickness or syndrome): maladia

mal

1. (Brazil) misspelling of mau

• Guinea-Bissau Creole: mal
• Kabuverdianu: mal

• “mal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “mal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Cognate to Aromanian mal and meal. From Proto-Albanian *mala (“mountain”) (Standard Albanian mal).^[1][2][3][4] See Albanian mal (“mountain”) for more. On account of the name of the Roman province of Dacia Malvensis, along the Olt and Jiu rivers, it may have already possessed the sense of "riverbank" in Dacian.

mal n (plural maluri)

1. shore
2. riverbank

From Proto-Slavic *malъ, from Proto-Indo-European *moh₁los.

• IPA^(key): /mâːl/

mȃl (Cyrillic spelling ма̑л, definite mȃlī, comparative mȁnjī)

1. small

• màlen

• “mal”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026

• IPA^(key): /mal/, [ˈmal]
• Rhymes: -al

mal

1. masculine singular l-participle of mať

• IPA^(key): /ˈmal/ [ˈmal]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: mal

Inherited from Latin male.

mal (comparative peor)

1. badly, poorly, ill

   No hables mal de los muertos.

   Don't speak ill of the dead.

   Qué mal.

   Too bad. / That's too bad.

2. awry, amiss, wrong, wrongly

   Tu plan maestro salió mal bastante rápido

   Your master plan went awry pretty quickly.

3. hard (functions as an adverb in Spanish but translates as an adjective in English)

   Estoy pasándolo mal con todo ahora mismo.

   I'm just having a hard time with everything right now.

4. (Argentina, colloquial) Used as an intensifier, very
5. (Argentina, colloquial) yes

mal m (plural males)

1. evil, harm; a bad thing or situation

   de mal en peor ― from bad to worse

2. disease, illness, ailment

   Synonyms: enfermedad, dolencia

   Coordinate term: dolor

   ... le curaremos, si es que su mal tiene cura...

   ... we shall cure him, if his ailment has a cure...

   (Cervantes, Quijote, ch. 23)

3. worse (substantive)

   para bien o para mal ― for better or for worse

Inherited from Old Spanish mal, malo, from Latin malus, possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“bad, wrong”).

mal m (apocopate, standard form malo)

1. (before the noun) apocopic form of malo bad; evil
2. amiss, awry, off, wrong

   Me di cuenta de que algo estaba mal.

   I realized something was amiss.

The form mal is used only before and within the noun phrase of singular masculine noun. In other positions, malo is used instead:

Fue un mal viaje. ― It was a bad trip.

El viaje fue malo. ― The trip was bad.

Él es un escritor malo. ― He is a bad writer.

• maleza
• malicia

• “mal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

• IPA^(key): /mɑːl/

• Audio (Gotland); “en mal”:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːl

From Old Norse mǫlr, from Proto-Germanic *malwan, from Proto-Indo-European *molH-(y)o-. See also Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌻𐍉 (malō) and German Milbe.

mal c

2. moth
4. wels catfish, Silurus glanis

• fjäril c
• larv c
• nattfjäril c

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mal

1. inflection of mala:
   1. imperative
   2. present indicative

• “mal”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “mal”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “mal”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

• LMA, alm, lam

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish مال (mal), from Arabic مَال (māl, “property”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɫ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mal

mal (definite accusative malı, plural mallar or (dated) emval)

1. cattle
2. goods, property
3. asset
4. (economy) merchandise
5. (law) goods, commodity
6. (colloquial, derogatory) (no equivalent expression; likely) an expendable or ignorable stupid and annoying person, douche, prick
7. (slang, vulgar) a prostitute
8. (slang) marijuana, weed

   Synonyms: esrar, ot, duman, sarıkız, keyif, fino (all slang except esrar)

• emval

• “mal”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu

Borrowed from Malay mahal. Compare Central Bikol mahal and Tagalog mahal.

mal

1. expensive

   Antonym: barato

From Proto-Micronesian *manu, from Proto-Oceanic *manuk, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *manuk, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *manuk, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *manuk, from Proto-Austronesian *manuk.

• IPA^(key): [maɾi̥u̥]

mal

1. animal
2. bird

• Sohn, Ho-Mihn; Tawerilmang, Anthony F. (1976), Woleaian-English Dictionary‎^[8], Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page 219

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): [mʌ́l]
• Hyphenation: mal

mál

1. back of a thigh

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): [māːl]
• Hyphenation: mal

mâl

1. north

• Philip Thangliènmâng (2010), Minimal dictionary and Self-tutor Functional Grammar in Zo-English-Hindi, New Delhi: Zoculsin, →ISBN, page 21
• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013), A Descriptive Grammar of Zou (PhD thesis), Canchipur: Manipur University, page 45