Madagascar
/madəˈɡaskə/
"madagascar" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Madagascar” has 15 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #17,405. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #17,405
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
- 15
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Madagascar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /madəˈɡaskə/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #17,405 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Madagascar” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 15 spelling variants around Madagascar (IPA /madəˈɡaskə/), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #17,405 among 36,575 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "An island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for Madagascar, with forms such as "amdagascar", "maadgascar", and "madaagscar". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French Madagascar, from Madageiscar, popularly reputed as a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu by Marco Polo's misreading of Arabic. The maps of particular interest are that of al-Idrisi in the 12th century, who produced the Tabula … The correct English form is Madagascar, spelled M-A-D-A-G-A-S-C-A-R.
Definition
- 1An island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French Madagascar, from Madageiscar, popularly reputed as a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu by Marco Polo's misreading of Arabic. The maps of particular interest are that of al-Idrisi in the 12th century, who produced the Tabula Rogeriana, the most advanced world map at the time. The actual misconstrued term was Arabic جَزِيرَة المَالَائِيّ (jazīrat al-mālāʔiyy, “The Island of Mālāī”) listed alongside Arabic جَزِيرَة القَمَر (jazīrat al-qamar, “The Island of the Moon”) which lent its name to Comoros; Madagascar however likely being the original based on its dimensions. The map in question warps the direction of Africa's east coast to be parallel to the coast of southeast Asia, prompting a conflation of the regions furthest east and furthest south, in the reaches of Arab exploration. This perhaps makes the Island of Mālāī both representing Madagascar and an island in Indonesia, likely Sumatra, in close proximity to Malaysia. To conflate matters further, the populations of both regions are of Austronesian background, a fact pointed out by Arab explorers who identified Madagascar as colony of the former region. A second wave of Austronesians, including Malays, did indeed migrate to the island after the first group had originally left from what was likely Southern Borneo from linguistic and genetic analysis. "Mālāī-Gezīra" also holds connection to the term for the people and languages of the island, Malagasy, which had earlier forms Malegass and Madegass, because of dialect division.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- amdagascar
- maadgascar
- madaagscar
- madagacsar
- madagasacr
- madagascarr
- madagasccar
- madagascra
- madagasscar
- madaggascar
- madagsacar
- maddagascar
- madgaascar
- mdaagascar
- mmadagascar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Madagascar - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Madagascar"?
What does "Madagascar" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Madagascar”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-D-A-G-A-S-C-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /madəˈɡaskə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.