malarkey
/məˈlɑːki/
"malarkey" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“malarkey” is an uncommon English word, ranked #58,827 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #58,827
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Nonsense; rubbish.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | malarkey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /məˈlɑːki/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #58,827 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “malarkey” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for malarkey is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /məˈlɑːki/. Corpus data places it at rank #58,827 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Nonsense; rubbish.".
No misspelling variants are generated for malarkey in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Of unknown origin; the word was popularized by the Irish-American cartoonist Thomas Aloysius (“Tad”) Dorgan (1877–1929), who started using it in cartoons on March 9, 1922. Maybe from Irish mallachtóireacht or Greek μαλακίες (malakíes) The correct English form is malarkey, spelled M-A-L-A-R-K-E-Y.
Definition
- 1Nonsense; rubbish.
Etymology
Of unknown origin; the word was popularized by the Irish-American cartoonist Thomas Aloysius (“Tad”) Dorgan (1877–1929), who started using it in cartoons on March 9, 1922. Maybe from Irish mallachtóireacht or Greek μαλακίες (malakíes)
This word in other languages
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 "malarkey"?
What does "malarkey" mean?
How do you pronounce "malarkey"?
What is the origin of the word "malarkey"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “malarkey”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-L-A-R-K-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /məˈlɑːki/ (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
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.