Word.ws English Dictionary

myall

/maɪˈɔːl/

myall noun: a stranger; an ignorant person.

Noun (1)

myall (plural myalls)

  1. (obsolete, Australian Aboriginal) A stranger; an ignorant person.
    • He […] flung himself into the outstretched arms of Anna. "Wazzer madder liddle man?" she crooned. "Aw wazzer madder wid de liddle myall now?"1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 75
  2. (Australia) An Aboriginal person living according to tradition.

Adjective

myall (comparative more myall, superlative most myall)

  1. (Australia) According to Aboriginal tradition; traditionally indigenous.
    • It was some kind of gadget that can take away all your myall words, transcribe what you say in better language so people can understand what you are talking about.2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 99
  2. (Australia) Ignorant, stupid.
    • ‘You blooming myall or what? What if the cops shot ya?’2018, Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip, University of Queensland Press, published 2023, page 176

Noun (2)

myall (countable and uncountable, plural myalls)

  1. Any of various Australian acacias, especially the weeping myall, Acacia pendula, or the wood of such trees.
    • Friday, 30th December, Hanson Range. […] Changed our course to a very prominent hill (which I have named Mount Arthur) bearing 275 degrees, and after crossing two small myall creeks and a stony plain with salt bush and grass, at ten miles we struck a large myall and gum creek, coming from the...1859, John McDouall Stuart, journal entry, Third Expedition (In the vicinity of Lake Torrens, Explorations in Australia - The Journals of John McDouall Stuart, Echo Library, 2006, page 57
    • The durable, dark-colored wood of the coast myall or mountain brigalow (A. glaucescens) has been likened to that of English walnut.1968, Thomas H. Everett, Living Trees of the World, page 185

Proper noun capitalized: Myall

IPA/ˈmaɪəl/

Myall (countable and uncountable, plural Myalls)

  1. A surname from Middle English.
  2. A locality in the Shire of Buloke, Victoria, Australia.
  3. A locality in the Shire of Gannawarra, Victoria, Australia.

Forms of myall

Noun
pluralmyalls
Adjective
comparativemore myall
superlativemost myall
Proper noun
pluralMyalls
alternative formMyell

Origin of myall

Borrowed from Dharug mayal, miyal.

Aboriginal, perhaps a transferred use of Etymology 1, above.

For the surname, from Middle English Mighel, Mihel, variant of Michel (“Michael”). Mostly found in Essex.

Words formed from myall

Phrases with myall

Questions about myall

What does myall mean?
Myall means a stranger; an ignorant person.
What part of speech is myall?
Myall can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce myall?
Myall is pronounced /maɪˈɔːl/.
What is the plural of myall?
The plural of myall is myalls.

Words near myall in the dictionary

  1. myalgias
  2. myalgic
  3. myalgic encephalomyelitis
  4. myalinid
  5. myalism
  6. myall
  7. Myall Creek
  8. Myall Lake
  9. Myall Park
  10. myall snake
  11. myall snakes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: myall (page history and authors); Myall (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.

Last updated:

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

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