Meaning & use
malapropism
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A mistake in which someone uses a word that sounds like the right one but has a different meaning, often creating a comical effect.
Grammar: Has a plural: Her speech was full of malapropisms.
Patterns
- make a malapropism
- a malapropism for something
Saying 'a nest egg' as 'a nest leg' is a classic malapropism.
The comedian's malapropisms had the crowd laughing.
His malapropism, 'pacific' for 'specific', made us smile.
Word forms
| plural | malapropisms |
|---|
Common combinations
- classic malapropism
- It was a classic malapropism.
- make a malapropism
- He made a malapropism in his toast.
- full of malapropisms
- The script is full of malapropisms.
- comic malapropism
- The comic malapropism lightened the meeting.
Synonyms and how they differ
- slip of the tongue
- A slip of the tongue is any spoken error, not specifically a wrong word that sounds similar.
- spoonerism
- A spoonerism swaps sounds between words, while a malapropism swaps a whole word for a similar-sounding one.
Word family
- malapropos adjective
- inappropriate, a different word from the same French root
- malaprop adjective
- relating to malapropisms, as in a malaprop speaker
Commonly confused: malapropism or spoonerism?
malapropism vs spoonerism
A spoonerism swaps the first sounds of two words, such as 'a lack of pies' for 'a pack of lies'.
Practice
Which is a malapropism?
Choose one answer.
Pineapple is used for pinnacle, a similar-sounding word with a different meaning, which is a malapropism. The others contain no mistake.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “malapropism”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.