mala
/ˈmeɪ.lə/
"mala" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mala” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #34,178) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #34,178
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A single lobe of an insect's maxilla.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mala · mala · English
mala · rank #34,178 · 3 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #34,178
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 3 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Manley
Nearest frequency peer: Manley (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “mala”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- madge
madge
65,827 corpus weight
- Magee
Magee
65,826 corpus weight
- magpies
magpies
65,825 corpus weight
- mala
mala
65,823 corpus weight
- Manley
Manley
65,822 corpus weight
- marv
marv
65,820 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “mala” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mala |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmeɪ.lə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #34,178 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “mala”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for mala is neighbouring look-alikes ("ML", "may", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈmeɪ.lə/. Frequency #34,178 among 4,057 “M” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for mala, with forms such as "malla", "mlaa", and "mmala". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ML", "may", "man", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin māla (“the cheekbone, jaw”). The correct English form is mala, spelled M-A-L-A.
Definition
- 1A single lobe of an insect's maxilla.
- 2The grinding surface of an insect's mandible.
- 3The third segment of a mandible of some myriapods.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin māla (“the cheekbone, jaw”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- malla
- mlaa
- mmala
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mala - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mala", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).