malleus
/ˈmæl.i.əs/noun
malleus is spelled M-A-L-L-E-U-S: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 97,057th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, malleus means “The small hammer-shaped bone of the middle ear” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of malleus is mallei.
How many letters and syllables are in malleus?
| Letters | 7: M-A-L-L-E-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 10 million words; the 97,057th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is malleus?
Malleus appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 97,057th 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 malleus?
- US /ˈmæl.i.əs/
Malleus has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-malleus.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of malleus
- mallei plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does malleus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The small hammer-shaped bone of the middle ear.
A fracture of the malleus handle is a rare traumatic middle ear lesion.
- 2
The tripus (ossicle in cypriniform fishes).
- 3
One of the paired calcareous structures within the mastax of rotifers.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Malleus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the small hammer-shaped bone of the middle ear:
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 malleus come from?
From Latin malleus (“hammer, mallet”). Doublet of maul.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).