maul
/mɔːl/noun, verb
maul is spelled M-A-U-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, maul means “A heavy long-handled hammer, used for splitting logs by driving a wedge into them, or in combat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of maul is mauls.
How many letters and syllables are in maul?
| Letters | 4: M-A-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 32,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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 maul?
Maul appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th 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 maul?
- /mɔːl/
Maul 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-mall.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-maul.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with maul
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: mall (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 maul?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as maul.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: alum, luma, malu.
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 maul
- mauls plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- mauling participle, present
- mauled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does maul mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A heavy long-handled hammer, used for splitting logs by driving a wedge into them, or in combat.
- 2
A situation where the player carrying the ball, who must be on his feet, is held by one or more opponents, and one or more of the ball carrier's team mates bind onto the ball carrier.
- 3
The fruit of the Washingtonia species.
verb
- 1
To handle someone or something in a rough way.
- 2
To savage; to cause serious physical wounds.
The bear mauled him in a terrible way.
- 3
To criticise harshly.
The latest film by the Cohen brothers was mauled by the press, and was a box-office flop to boot.
- 4
To beat with a maul.
- 5
slangTo play rough, to fondle intensively.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Maul in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | merlin , maltraiter , amocher , casser du sucre sur le dos de |
| German | Spalthammer , rücksichtslos anfassen, misshandeln , zerfleischen, übel zurichten , anmotzen |
| Portuguese | malho, marreta , maltratar , malhar |
| Spanish | mandarria, mallo , maltratar , tarazar |
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 maul come from?
From Middle English malle (“mace, maul”), from Anglo-Norman mail, from Old French mail, from Latin malleus (“hammer”). Doublet of malleus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).