Madagascar
/mædəˈɡæskə/obsolete
Madagascar is spelled M-A-D-A-G-A-S-C-A-R: 10 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,342nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, Madagascar means “A resident of Madagascar” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of Madagascar is Madagascars.
How many letters and syllables are in Madagascar?
| Letters | 10: M-A-D-A-G-A-S-C-A-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words; the 17,342nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is Madagascar?
Madagascar appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,342nd 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).
How do you pronounce Madagascar?
- British /mædəˈɡæskə/
- British /-skɑː/
- /madəˈɡaskə/
Madagascar has 4 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)-Soundguys-Madagascar.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Madagascar.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does Madagascar mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
obsoleterareA resident of Madagascar.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does Madagascar come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).