# Malabar

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /ˈmæləˌbɑː/ · frequency rank #45,503

## Definitions
1. The region of coastal southwestern India, principally the modern state of Kerala.
2. the Tamil language.
3. A district of British India.
4. A suburb of Sydney in the Randwick council area, New South Wales, Australia.

## Etymology
From Arabic مَلَبَار (malabār), first attested in the writings of Iranian scholar Al-Biruni (c. 11th century). The second element is Arabic بَرّ (barr, “land, ground”) or Persian بار (bâr, “coast”), and the first element is the same as the Byzantine Greek toponym Μαλέ (Malé), mentioned by traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 5th century as a source of pepper exports, concording with modern-day pepper cultivation on the Malabar coast.
Mala ~ Male is, in turn, borrowed from Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”). This is also the source of the name of the language: മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ, literally “mountain place”). Compare Zanzibar for a possibly similar word formation.

## Easily confused with
- **Malaya** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/malabar-vs-malaya)
- **Malaga** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/malabar-vs-malaga)
- **Malayan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/malabar-vs-malayan)

## Common misspellings (10)
`amlabar`, `maalbar`, `malaabr`, `malabarr`, `malabbar`, `malabra`, `malbaar`, `mallabar`, `mlaabar`, `mmalabar`

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