Word.ws English Dictionary

mallam

Syllables: mal·lamUK/ˈmæ.ləm/US/ˈmæ.ləm/

mallam noun: in Africa, a teacher of the Qur'an.

Noun

mallam (plural mallams)

  1. In Africa, a teacher of the Qur'an.

Forms of mallam

pluralmallams
alternative formmaalam
alternative formmalam

Origin of mallam

Borrowed from Arabic مُعَلِّم (muʕallim, “teacher”). First attested in the 1820s.

Questions about mallam

What does mallam mean?
Mallam means in Africa, a teacher of the Qur'an.
What part of speech is mallam?
Mallam is a noun.
How do you pronounce mallam?
Mallam is pronounced /ˈmæ.ləm/ (UK).
What is the plural of mallam?
The plural of mallam is mallams.

Words near mallam in the dictionary

  1. Malladis
  2. malladrite
  3. Mallaig
  4. mallakhamb
  5. mallakhamba
  6. mallam
  7. mallams
  8. Mallan
  9. mallanders
  10. Mallanganee
  11. mallangong

Source and license

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