Magdalen
/ˈmæɡdəlɪn/noun
Magdalen is a noun meaning “Alternative form of Magdalene (“a reformed prostitute”)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-A-G-D-A-L-E-N and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of Magdalen is Magdalens.
What does Magdalen mean?
noun
- 1
Alternative form of Magdalene (“a reformed prostitute”).
[…] these Magdalens dedicated their lives to prayer and performed various tasks such as cooking, cleaning or laundry for the sisters.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce Magdalen?
- /ˈmæɡdəlɪn/
- /ˈmɔːdlɪn/
Magdalen has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Magdalen_(girl).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Magdalen_(college).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of Magdalen
- Magdalens plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is Magdalen?
Magdalen appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).