Standard Lemma guide

malformed

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌmælˈfɔːmd/
  • General-American: /ˌmælˈfɔɹmd/
  • rhymes with -ɔː(ɹ)m
  • CMU ARPABET: M AE2 L F AO1 R M D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Not formed correctly; misshapen; deformed.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

so badly formed or out of shape as to be ugly

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • deformed thalidomide babies
  • his poor distorted limbs
  • an ill-shapen vase
  • a limp caused by a malformed foot
  • misshapen old fingers

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: deformed, distorted, ill-shapen, misshapen

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel-? Proto-Italic *malos Latin malus Latin maleder. Old French mal- English mal- English formed English malformed From mal- + formed.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: деформиран (deformiran) — not formed correctly
  • Finnish: epämuodostunut — not formed correctly
  • Finnish: epämuotoinen — not formed correctly
  • German: deformiert — not formed correctly
  • German: missgebildet — not formed correctly
  • German: missgestaltet — not formed correctly
  • Korean: 잘못된 (jalmotdoen) — not formed correctly
  • Latin: dēfōrmis — not formed correctly
  • Norwegian: vanskapt — not formed correctly
  • Norwegian: misdannet — not formed correctly
  • Portuguese: malformado — not formed correctly
  • Portuguese: deformado — not formed correctly
  • Spanish: mal formado — not formed correctly
  • Spanish: malformado — not formed correctly
  • Spanish: malamente formado — not formed correctly
  • Turkish: kusurlu — not formed correctly
  • Turkish: özürlü — not formed correctly
  • Turkish: sakat — not formed correctly