Word.ws English Dictionary

malapropism

UK/ˈmæləpɹɒpˌɪzəm//ˈmæləpɹɑpˌɪzəm/

malapropism noun: the blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one.

malapropism: a red speech bubble sitting on top of a pile of white rocks
Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

Noun (1)

malapropism (countable and uncountable, plural malapropisms)

  1. (uncountable) The blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one.
    • The script employed malapropism to great effect.
  2. (countable) An instance of such use.
    • The translator matched every malapropism in the original with one from his own language.
    • The humor comes from all the malapropisms.
    Synonyms:
    malaprop

Noun (2) capitalized: Malapropism

Malapropism (plural Malapropisms)

  1. (rare) Rare form of malapropism.
    • M. Jules Lemaître has reproached Shakespeare for his love of Malapropisms. Those of Dogberry and many of his other low comedy parts are highly diverting buffoonery.1890 April, Andrew Lang, “The Comedies of Shakespeare. […] II. The Merchant of Venice.”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume LXXX, number CCCCLXXIX, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […]...
    • That old wound to his pride and self-esteem was not yet closed. He had come thinking he could talk of it, even wanting to talk of his fettered condition, and—behold! he was shrinking away from this reminder by Aunt Juley, renowned for her Malapropisms.1920, John Galsworthy, “At Timothy’s”, in In Chancery (The Forsyte Saga; 2), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part I, page 12

Synonyms of malapropism

Forms of malapropism

pluralmalapropisms
pluralMalapropisms
alternative form (rare)Malapropism
alternative form (obsolete)malapropoism

Origin of malapropism

From the name of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the play The Rivals (1775) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan + -ism. As dramatic characters in English comic plays of this time often had allusive names, it is likely that Sheridan fashioned the name from malapropos (“inappropriate; inappropriately”), from French mal à propos. Mrs. Malaprop is a classic example of a familiar comedic character archetype who unintentionally substitutes inappropriate but like-sounding words that take on a ludicrous meaning when used incorrectly.

Words formed from malapropism

Questions about malapropism

What does malapropism mean?
Malapropism means the blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one.
What part of speech is malapropism?
Malapropism is a noun.
How do you pronounce malapropism?
Malapropism is pronounced /ˈmæləpɹɒpˌɪzəm/ (UK).
What is the plural of malapropism?
The plural of malapropism is malapropisms.

Words near malapropism in the dictionary

  1. Malappuram
  2. malaprop
  3. malapropian
  4. malapropic
  5. malapropish
  6. malapropism
  7. malapropisms
  8. malapropist
  9. malapropistic
  10. malapropistically
  11. malapropists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: malapropism (page history and authors); Malapropism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-malapropism.ogg.

Cite this entry: “malapropism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/malapropism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.