Word.ws English Dictionary

mali

Syllables: ma·li/ˈmɑːli//ˈmɑli/

mali noun: a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener. Also the plural of malus.

mali: a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian...
Image: Vijay Dhasmana, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

mali (plural malis)

  1. (India, South-Asia) A member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener.
    • [H]ence the slow progress hitherto made in the cultivation of such produce of the garden as is generally held in estimation by the European portion of the community, left as it generally is, to the simple Hindoo mallee (or gardener,) it is not to be wondered at, that our bazars want what are deemed...1840, G. T. Frederic Speede, Indian Hand-book of Gardening; Containing Directions for the Management of the Kitchen and Flower Garden, etc. etc. in India: […], Calcutta: W. Thacker & Co. St. Andrew's...
    • Prizes were awarded to ten other mallees for best samples of vegetables, fruits and flowers, and last though not least we have to note, that a prize of two rupees was awarded to the mallee of Robert Fulton, Esq., of Sultangunge, for a remarkably fine bunch of grapes, clearly showing that either the...1848, “Report of Exhibitions of Vegetables, Fruits, Flowers and Agricultural Produce, Held at Bhaugulpore, on 11th February and 25th May, 1848. (Communicated by Major [T. E. A.] Napleton, Honorary...

Noun (2)

mali (uncountable)

  1. (South Africa) Money, cash.

Proper noun capitalized: Mali

Mali

  1. A country in West Africa. Official name: Republic of Mali.

Noun (3) capitalized: Mali

Mali (plural Malis)

  1. (Multicultural-London-English, slang) A Somali.

Also used as

mali is also the plural of malus.

mali meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

mali in Hindi

South Asian gardener
माली mālī, मालिन mālin

mali in Tamil

மாலி, மலி

mali in Marathi

माली, मली

mali in Urdu

South Asian gardener
مالی mâli
More languagesFewer languages
mali in Bengali
মালি
mali in Telugu
మాలి, మాలీ
mali in Malayalam
മാലി, മലി
mali in Kannada
ಮಾಲಿ, ಮಲಿ
mali in Punjabi
ਮਾਲੀ
mali in Gujarati
માલી, માલિ, મલી
mali in Odia
ମାଲି
mali in Sanskrit
मालिन् mālin, मालिनी mālinī
mali in Nepali
माली, मालि

Examples of mali in a sentence

  • And, as always, an Indian close outside the window, a mali in this case, picking up sounds.1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter XXII, in A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC, part II (Caves), page 203:
  • A nearly naked mali, watering-can in hand, was moving in the jungle of flowers like some large nectar-sucking bird.1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC; republished...

Forms of mali

pluralmalis
alternative formmallee
alternative formmolly
alternative formmalley
pluralMalis

Origin of mali

Borrowed from Hindi माली (mālī, “gardener”), from Sanskrit माली (mālī, “wreath-maker, garland-maker; florist; gardener”), मालिन् (mālin, “florist; gardener”), from माला (mālā, “wreath, garland; chaplet, crown”).

Borrowed from Xhosa imali, Zulu imali (“money”), both ultimately from Swahili mali (“riches, wealth; property”), from Arabic مَال (māl, “money; affluence, wealth; possessions, property”). Some dictionaries suggest an origin in English money instead, making no attempt to account for the distribution of the loanword nor the proposed shift from /n/ to /l/, both of which make this unlikely.

Borrowed from Latin malī, a plural form of malus (“adverse, unfavourable, unfortunate, unlucky; destructive, hurtful; bad, evil”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“erroneous, false; bad, evil”)).

Words formed from mali

Phrases with mali

Words that rhyme with mali

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mali

What does mali mean?
Mali means a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener.
What is mali in Hindi?
Mali in Hindi is माली (mālī), मालिन (mālin). See Mali meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mali in a sentence?
And, as always, an Indian close outside the window, a mali in this case, picking up sounds.
What part of speech is mali?
Mali can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce mali?
Mali is pronounced /ˈmɑːli/ (UK).
What is the plural of mali?
The plural of mali is malis.

Words near mali in the dictionary

  1. Malhis
  2. malhmoodite
  3. Malhotra
  4. Malhotras
  5. malhygiene
  6. mali
  7. Mali Bukovec
  8. Mali Lošinj
  9. malia
  10. Maliah
  11. Maliakos Gulf

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mali (page history and authors); Mali (page history and authors); mali (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mali (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-mali.wav, En-us-Mali.ogg.

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