name · noun · 6 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:/ˈmɑːli/
UK:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Canada, US:/ˈmɑli/
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Australian, New-Zealand:/ˈmɐːli/
Scotland:/ˈmale/
Scotland:/-lɪ/
Scotland:/-li/
rhymes with -ɑːli
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
General-American:/ˈmeɪlaɪ/
CMU ARPABET:M AA1 L IY0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
name
Meaning 1
A country in West Africa. Official name: Republic of Mali.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: Subsahara
2
noun
Meaning 2
A Somali.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Multicultural-London-English, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
A member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: India, South-Asia
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
Money, cash.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: South-Africa, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
plural of malus
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: form-of, plural
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
noun
Meaning 6
a landlocked republic in northwestern Africa; achieved independence from France in 1960; Mali was a center of West African civilization for more than 4,000 years
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Republic of Mali, French Sudan
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: African country, African nation
History
Etymology
Inherits its name from the Mali Empire, in turn from Mandinka or Dyula mali (“hippopotamus”).
Clipping of Somali (“a person from Somalia or of Somali descent”).
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”).
Etymology tree Arabic مَا (mā) Proto-Afroasiatic Proto-Semitic *lV- Arabic لِـ (li-) univ.? Arabic مَال (māl)bor. Swahili malider. Xhosa ímalíbor. ▲ Swahili malider. Zulu ímalíbor. English mali 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.
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”)).
Across languages
Translations
77 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Afrikaans:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Amharic:
ማሊ
(mali)
— a country in Western Africa
Arabic:
مَالِي
(mālī)
— a country in Western Africa
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic:
ܡܵܠܝܼ
(mālī)
— a country in Western Africa
Armenian:
Մալի
— a country in Western Africa
Asturian:
Malí
— a country in Western Africa
Belarusian:
Малі́
(Malí)
— a country in Western Africa
Bengali:
মালি
(mali)
— a country in Western Africa
Breton:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Burmese:
မာလီ
(mali)
— a country in Western Africa
Chinese Mandarin:
馬里
(Mǎlǐ)
— a country in Western Africa
Czech:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Danish:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Dhivehi:
މާލީ
(mālī)
— a country in Western Africa
Dutch:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Esperanto:
Malio
— a country in Western Africa
Estonian:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Farefare:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Finnish:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
French:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Georgian:
მალი
(mali)
— a country in Western Africa
German:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Greek:
Μάλι
(Máli)
— a country in Western Africa
Hausa:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Hebrew:
מאלי
(mali)
— a country in Western Africa
Hindi:
माली
(mālī)
— a country in Western Africa
Hungarian:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Icelandic:
Malí
— a country in Western Africa
Interlingua:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Italian:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Japanese:
マリ
(Mari)
— a country in Western Africa
Kalenjin:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Kamba:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Kazakh:
Мали
— a country in Western Africa
Khmer:
ម៉ាលី
(maalii)
— a country in Western Africa
Kikuyu:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Korean:
말리
(Malli)
— a country in Western Africa
Kyrgyz:
Мали
— a country in Western Africa
Lao:
ມາລີ
(mā lī)
— a country in Western Africa
Lithuanian:
Malis
— a country in Western Africa
Macedonian:
Мали
— a country in Western Africa
Maltese:
il-Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Māori:
Māri
— a country in Western Africa
Meru:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Mongolian:
Мали
— a country in Western Africa
Norman:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Norwegian Bokmål:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Norwegian Nynorsk:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Pannonian Rusyn:
Мали
— a country in Western Africa
Persian:
مالی
(mâli)
— a country in Western Africa
Polish:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Portuguese:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Romanian:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Russian:
Мали́
(Malí)
— a country in Western Africa
Serbo-Croatian:
Ма̑ли
— a country in Western Africa
Serbo-Croatian:
Mȃli
— a country in Western Africa
Sinhalese:
මාලි
(māli)
— a country in Western Africa
Slovak:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Slovene:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Spanish:
Malí
— a country in Western Africa
Swahili:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Swedish:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Tagalog:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Tajik:
Малӣ
— a country in Western Africa
Tamil:
மாலி
(māli)
— a country in Western Africa
Thai:
มาลี
(maa-lii)
— a country in Western Africa
Tigrinya:
ማሊ
(mali)
— a country in Western Africa
Turkish:
Mali
— a country in Western Africa
Ukrainian:
Малі́
(Malí)
— a country in Western Africa
