# madam vs Malay

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### madam
*noun · IPA /ˈmæd.əm/ · frequency rank #13,192*
A polite form of address for a woman or lady.

### Malay
*adjective · IPA /məˈleɪ̯/ · frequency rank #17,407*
Of or relating to the Malays, a people living in Brunei, on the eastern coast of Sumatra, the islands of Bangka and Belitung, the Riau archipelago and the coastal areas of Kalimantan in Indonesia, in most of Malaysia (states where they are politically dominant), in Singapore and in the southernmost provinces of Thailand.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/madam-vs-malay