Malapropism
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one. uncountable
"The script employed malapropism to great effect."
- 2 Rare form of malapropism. form-of, rare
"M. Jules Lemaître has reproached Shakespeare for his love of Malapropisms. Those of Dogberry and many of his other low comedy parts are highly diverting buffoonery."
- 3 the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar wordnet
- 4 An instance of this; malaprop. countable
"The translator matched every malapropism in the original with one from his own language."
Example
More examples"The script employed malapropism to great effect."
Etymology
From the name of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the play The Rivals (1775) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan + -ism. As dramatic characters in English comic plays of this time often had allusive names, it is likely that Sheridan fashioned the name from malapropos (“inappropriate; inappropriately”), from French mal à propos. Mrs. Malaprop is perhaps the best-known example of a familiar comedic character archetype who unintentionally substitutes inappropriate but like-sounding words that take on a ludicrous meaning when used incorrectly.
Related phrases
More for "malapropism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.