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PlainSpell

malt

/mɔlt/noun, verb

malt is spelled M-A-L-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,896th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, malt means “Malted grain (sprouted grain) (usually barley), used in brewing and otherwise” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of malt is malts.

How many letters and syllables are in malt?

Letters4: M-A-L-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.6 times per million words; the 16,896th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is malt?

Malt appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,896th 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 malt?

  • UK /mɒlt/
  • UK /mɔːlt/
  • US /mɔlt/

Malt 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: En-us-malt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with malt?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as malt from its last stressed vowel (/ɔlt/):

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 malt

  • malts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • malting participle, present
  • malted participle, past

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

What does malt mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Malted grain (sprouted grain) (usually barley), used in brewing and otherwise.

  2. 2

    Malt liquor, especially malt whisky.

  3. 3

    USinformalA milkshake with malted milk powder added for flavor.

  4. 4

    Maltose-rich sugar derived from malted grain.

verb

  1. 1

    To convert a cereal grain into malt by causing it to sprout (by soaking in water) and then halting germination (by drying with hot air) in order to develop enzymes that can break down starches and proteins in the grain.

  2. 2

    To become malt.

  3. 3

    datedTo drink malt liquor.

noun

as MALT
  1. 1

    Initialism of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue.

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

Malt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmalt (sprouted grain used in brewing), malter (to convert grain into malt)
GermanMalz (sprouted grain used in brewing), mälzen (to convert grain into malt)
Portuguesemalte (sprouted grain used in brewing), maltar (to convert grain into malt)
Spanishmalta (sprouted grain used in brewing), malteada (malted milkshake)

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 malt come from?

From Middle English malt, from Old English mealt, from Proto-West Germanic *malt, from Proto-Germanic *maltą (“malt”), from *maltaz (“soft; nesh; weak; squashy; melting”), from Proto-Indo-European *meld-, *mled- (“to crush; grind; make weak”).

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

What to look up after malt