malmsey
/ˈmɑ(l)mzi/noun
malmsey is spelled M-A-L-M-S-E-Y: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 59 million words in written English, the 240,237th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, malmsey means “A sweet fortified wine made in Madeira, originally from the malvasia grape” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of malmsey is malmseys.
How many letters and syllables are in malmsey?
| Letters | 7: M-A-L-M-S-E-Y |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 59 million words; the 240,237th 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 malmsey?
Malmsey appears about once in every 59 million words in written English, the 240,237th 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 malmsey?
- UK /ˈmɑːmzɪ/
- US /ˈmɑ(l)mzi/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of malmsey
- malmseys plural
- malmesey
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does malmsey mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A sweet fortified wine made in Madeira, originally from the malvasia grape.
All black wines, over-hot, compound, strong, thick drinks, as muscadine, malmsey, alicant, rumney, brown bastard, metheglin, and the like […]
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Malmsey in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense wine made from malvasia:
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 malmsey come from?
Via Middle English malmesye from Middle Dutch malemeseye, from Italian via Old French, ultimately from Ancient Greek Μονεμβασία (Monembasía, “Monemvasia”, a city on the Peloponnese), from μόνος (mónos, “only one”) + ἔμβασις (émbasis, “entering into”, ἐν- + βάσις). Doublet of malvoisie.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).