Word.ws English Dictionary

maletote

/ˈmæl.təʊt//ˈmæl.toʊt/

maletote noun: an arbitrary tax; in particular, a levy imposed by the English monarch on a certain good beyond ordinary customs duties.

Noun

maletote (plural maletotes)

  1. (historical) An arbitrary tax; in particular, a levy imposed by the English monarch on a certain good beyond ordinary customs duties.
    • Immediately hereupon, even this very yeere, was this complained of in Parliament, and a Petition exibited by the Lords and Cõmons, that it might be enacted, that this Maletolt or Imposition, because it was taken without assent of Parliament, might be taken away, and that a Law might be made, that...1641, William Hakewil[l], The Libertie of the Subject: Against the Pretended Power of Impositions […], page 54
    • The occurrence of a Maltolte in history is of necessity limited to a somewhat brief period.1885, Hubert Hall, A History of the Custom-Revenue in England […], volume 2, page 170

Forms of maletote

pluralmaletotes
alternative formmaletolt
alternative formmaltolte
alternative formmaltolt

Origin of maletote

Inherited from Middle English maltode, from Anglo-Norman maltolt (“unjust tax”), from Medieval Latin malatolta, from mala (“evil”) + tolta (“tax”), the latter from tollīta (“raised”), used in Medieval Latin as past participle of Classical Latin tollō.

Questions about maletote

What does maletote mean?
Maletote means an arbitrary tax; in particular, a levy imposed by the English monarch on a certain good beyond ordinary customs duties.
What part of speech is maletote?
Maletote is a noun.
How do you pronounce maletote?
Maletote is pronounced /ˈmæl.təʊt/ (UK).
What is the plural of maletote?
The plural of maletote is maletotes.

Words near maletote in the dictionary

  1. malestreams
  2. malesub
  3. malesubs
  4. maletolt
  5. maletolts
  6. maletote
  7. maletotes
  8. maletreat
  9. maletreated
  10. maletreating
  11. maletreats

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maletote (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-maletote.wav, en-uk-maletote.ogg.

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