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PlainSpell

male

/meɪl/adjective, noun

male is spelled M-A-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 78 times per million words in written English, the 1,369th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “mail vs male” about 20 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, male means “Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in male?

Letters4: M-A-L-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing78 times per million words; the 1,369th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is male?

Male appears 78 times per million words in written English, the 1,369th 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 male?

  • US /meɪl/
  • /meːl/

Male has one syllable (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)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-male.wav, En-us-male.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with male

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

mail vs male20 G

Sounds like: mail (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with male?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as male from its last stressed vowel (/eɪl/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: meal, lame, mela, amel, lema, leam.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of male

  • maler comparative
  • more male comparative
  • malest superlative
  • most male superlative
  • males plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does male mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to the gender which is typically associated with it.

    male writers

  2. 2

    Characteristic of this sex/gender. (Compare masculine, manly.)

    stereotypically male interests

  3. 3

    Tending to lead to or regulate the development of sexual characteristics typical of this sex.

    the male chromosome

  4. 4

    masculineMasculine; of the masculine grammatical gender. (a form of the masculine grammatical gender)

  5. 5

    Having the F factor; able to impart DNA into another bacterium which does not have the F factor (a female).

  6. 6

    Of instruments, tools, or connectors: designed to fit into or penetrate a female counterpart, as in a connector, pipe fitting or laboratory glassware.

noun

  1. 1

    A human member of the masculine sex or gender.

    For quotations using this term, see Citations:male.

  2. 2

    An animal of the sex that has testes.

  3. 3

    A plant of the masculine sex.

  4. 4

    A bacterium which has the F factor.

  5. 5

    A male connector, pipe fitting, etc.

noun

as Male
  1. 1

    Alternative form of Maale.

adjective

as MALE
  1. 1

    Acronym of medium-altitude long-endurance

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate male?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of male: M.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Male in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmâle, masculin (belonging to the sex which typically produces…), homme (human of masculine sex or gender)
Germanmännlich (belonging to the sex which typically produces…), Mann (human of masculine sex or gender), Männchen, Er (animal of masculine sex)
Portuguesemacho, masculino, másculo (belonging to the sex which typically produces…), homem (human of masculine sex or gender), planta-pai (plant of masculine sex)
Spanishmasculino, macho (belonging to the sex which typically produces…), varón, hombre (human of masculine sex or gender)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does male come from?

From Middle English male, borrowed from Old French malle, masle (Modern French mâle), from Latin masculus (“masculine, a male”), diminutive of mās (“male, masculine”). Doublet of macho. Displaced native Old English wǣpned (“male”, literally “weaponed”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after male