malus
/ˈmeɪ.ləs/
"malus" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“malus” is uncommon English (frequency #76,096 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,096
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The loss or return of performance-related compensation originally paid by an employer to an employee as a result of the discovery of a defect in the performance.
Corpus desk
Index EN-malus · malus · English
malus · rank #76,096 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,096
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mamo
Nearest frequency peer: mamo (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “malus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Makepeace
Makepeace
23,909 corpus weight
- Malika
Malika
23,908 corpus weight
- malus
malus
23,905 corpus weight
- mamo
mamo
23,904 corpus weight
- Mandingo
Mandingo
23,902 corpus weight
- marchesa
marchesa
23,899 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “malus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | malus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmeɪ.ləs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #76,096 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “malus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
malus is uncommon English at frequency #76,096 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmeɪ.ləs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for malus, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. 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: From Latin malus, by analogy with bonus (“additional compensation”). Doublet of mal. The correct English form is malus, spelled M-A-L-U-S.
Definition
- 1The loss or return of performance-related compensation originally paid by an employer to an employee as a result of the discovery of a defect in the performance.
- 2A penalty or negative thing.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how malus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
When bank fired the loan originator, they recovered the last two years of her bonuses under the malus clause in her contract.
The existence of boni and mali for the different risks can be interpreted through the sign of estimated covariances.
Etymology
From Latin malus, by analogy with bonus (“additional compensation”). Doublet of mal.
Synonyms
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "malus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).