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mali

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Mali¹

  • /ˈmɑːli/ UK
  • /ˈmɑli/ Canada, US
  • /ˈmɐːli/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /ˈmale/ Scotland
  • /-lɪ/ Scotland
  • /-li/ Scotland

Rhymes with -ɑːli

Where it comes from

Inherits its name from the Mali Empire, in turn from Mandinka or Dyula mali (“hippopotamus”).

proper noun

  1. A country in West Africa. Official name: Republic of Mali.

Mali²

  • /ˈmɑːli/ UK
  • /ˈmɑli/ Canada, US
  • /ˈmɐːli/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /ˈmale/ Scotland
  • /-lɪ/ Scotland
  • /-li/ Scotland

Rhymes with -ɑːli

Where it comes from

Clipping of Somali (“a person from Somalia or of Somali descent”).

noun Malis

  1. Multicultural London English, slang A Somali.

mali³

  • /ˈmɑːli/ UK
  • /ˈmɑli/ US
  • /ˈmæ-/ US

Rhymes with -ɑːli, -æli

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Hindi माली (mālī, “gardener”), from Sanskrit माली (mālī, “wreath-maker, garland-maker; florist; gardener”), मालिन् (mālin, “florist; gardener”), from माला (mālā, “wreath, garland; chaplet, crown”).

noun malis · mallee · molly · malley

  1. India, South Asia A member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener. [H]ence the slow progress hitherto made in the cultivation of such produce of the garden as is generally held in estimation by the European portion of the community, left as it generally is, to the simple Hindoo mallee (or gardener,) it is not to be wondered at, that our bazars want what are deemed

mali⁴

  • /ˈmɑːli/ General South African, UK
  • /ˈmɑli/ US

Rhymes with -ɑːli

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Xhosa imali, Zulu imali (“money”), both ultimately from Swahili mali (“riches, wealth; property”), from Arabic مَال (māl, “money; affluence, wealth; possessions, property”). Some dictionaries suggest an origin in English money instead, making no attempt to account for the distribution of the loanword nor the proposed shift from /n/ to /l/, both of which make this unlikely.

noun

  1. South Africa, uncountable Money, cash.

mali⁵

  • /ˈmeɪlaɪ/ UK
  • /ˈmɑː-/ UK
  • /ˈmæ-/ UK
  • /ˈmeɪlaɪ/ US
  • /ˈmæ-/ US

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Latin malī, a plural form of malus (“adverse, unfavourable, unfortunate, unlucky; destructive, hurtful; bad, evil”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“erroneous, false; bad, evil”)).

noun

  1. plural plural of malus The existence of boni and mali for the different risks can be interpreted through the sign of estimated covariances.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: french sudan, ghana, malawi, morocco, bamako, malian, tunisia, maldives, mauritius, nauru, singapore, jamaica, ukraine, macau, france, mari

Translations

Every language

name a country in Western Africa

EspañolMalí
한국어말리 Malli
日本語マリ Mari
中文馬里 Mǎlǐ
हिन्दीमाली mālī
KiswahiliMali
PortuguêsMali
FrançaisMali
DeutschMali
ItalianoMali
ΕλληνικάΜάλι Máli
RomânăMali
РусскийМали́ Malí
Tiếng ViệtMa-li
العربيةمَالِي mālī
עבריתמאלי mali

noun South Asian gardener

हिन्दीमाली mālī, मालिन mālin

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"mali." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mali. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

mali. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mali

Chicago

"mali." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mali.

BibTeX
@misc{mali_2026,
  title = {mali},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mali},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}