Mali

\ma.li\

/\ma.li\/ name

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“Mali” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,504) as a proper noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,504
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Empire africain, dont les frontières ont beaucoup varié, ayant existé du début du XIIᵉ siècle jusqu’au milieu du XVIᵉ.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mali · Mali · French

Mali · rank #4,504 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,504
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH malheur

Nearest frequency peer: malheur (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « Mali »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « Mali » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

Mali vs mi
25% similar
Mali vs ML
25% similar
Mali vs moi
25% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for Mali
PropertyValue
HeadwordMali
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\ma.li\
Letters4
Frequency rank#4,504
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « Mali »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).Malise place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « malheur » (#4,503), « manifestants » (#4,505), « libérer » (#4,502). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « Mali » est au #4,504. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for Mali is neighbouring look-alikes ("mi", "ML", …), not just typos; it is aproper noun pronounced \ma.li\. Frequency #4,504 among 5,038 “M” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for Mali, with forms such as "amli", "malli", and "mlai". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mi", "ML", "moi", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is Mali, spelled M-A-L-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Empire africain, dont les frontières ont beaucoup varié, ayant existé du début du XIIᵉ siècle jusqu’au milieu du XVIᵉ.
  2. 2
    Pays d’Afrique ayant des frontières communes avec la Mauritanie et l’Algérie au nord, avec le Niger à l’est et nord-est, avec le Burkina Faso et la Côte d’Ivoire au sud, avec la Guinée au sud-ouest et avec le Sénégal à l’ouest, et dont la capitale est Bamako.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Mali appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Entreprendre une méharée au Mali, c’est s’immerger complètement dans le monde du désert, des espaces sans fin, des bivouacs étoilés, des feux de camp et des théières fumantes.
  2. Dans l’autre rencontre du groupe E, le Mali a dominé l’Afrique du Sud (2-0), avec un but de l’Auxerrois Sinayoko.

Synonyms

Empire du MaliHaut-Sénégal-NigerSoudan françaisRépublique soudanaiseFédération du MaliRépublique du Mali

This word in other languages

Mali(English)Malí(Español)Mali(Deutsch)Mali(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amli
  • malli
  • mlai
  • mmali

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Mali - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

amli2malli1mlai2mmali1
Edit distance from "Mali"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Mali"?
"Mali" is spelled M-A-L-I. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.li\.
What does "Mali" mean?
As a proper noun, "Mali" means: Empire africain, dont les frontières ont beaucoup varié, ayant existé du début du XIIᵉ siècle jusqu’au milieu du XVIᵉ.
What words are commonly confused with "Mali"?
"Mali" is commonly confused with "mi", "ML", "moi". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "Mali"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Mali" is \ma.li\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Mali" come from?
"Mali" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Mali", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

mien#4,509girl#4,491vols#4,539banc#4,468

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list