Malinois

\ma.li.nwa\

/\ma.li.nwa\/ noun

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

The verdict

“Malinois” is uncommon French (frequency #55,421 among 202,672 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,421
frequency rank, French
202,672
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Habitant de la ville belge de Malines.

Key facts for Malinois
PropertyValue
HeadwordMalinois
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ma.li.nwa\
Letters8
Frequency rank#55,421
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “Malinois” sits in French frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). Malinois lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Malinois is uncommon French at frequency #55,421 among 202,672 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ma.li.nwa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Habitant de la ville belge de Malines.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Malinois, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is Malinois, spelled M-A-L-I-N-O-I-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Habitant de la ville belge de Malines.

This word in other languages

Malinois(English)

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 "Malinois"?
"Malinois" is spelled M-A-L-I-N-O-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.li.nwa\.
What does "Malinois" mean?
As a noun, "Malinois" means: Habitant de la ville belge de Malines.
How do you pronounce "Malinois"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Malinois" is \ma.li.nwa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Malinois" come from?
"Malinois" 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.

Using “Malinois”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is M-A-L-I-N-O-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ma.li.nwa\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Other uncommon French words near this rank

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list