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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

Malabar.

The region of coastal southwestern India, principally the modern state of Kerala.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

name/ˈmæləˌbɑː/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmæləˌbɑɹ/General-American
  1. The region of coastal southwestern India, principally the modern state of Kerala.

    India · historical
  2. The Tamil language.

    obsolete
  3. A district of British India.

    India · historical
  4. A suburb of Sydney in the Randwick council area, New South Wales, Australia.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Arabic مَلَبَار (malabār), first attested in the writings of Iranian scholar Al-Biruni (c. 11th century). The second element is either from Arabic بَرّ (barr, “land, ground”) or from Classical Persian بَار (bār, “coast”), and the first element is the same as the Byzantine Greek toponym Μαλέ (Malé) (itself in turn derived from Malayalam മല (mala)), mentioned by traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 5th century as a source of pepper exports, concording with modern-day pepper cultivation on the Malabar coast. Mala ~ Male is, in turn, borrowed from Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”). This is also the source of the name of the language: മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ, literally “mountain place”). Compare Zanzibar for a possibly similar word formation.

noun/ˈmæləˌbɑː/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmæləˌbɑɹ/General-American
  1. A native of Malabar.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Arabic مَلَبَار (malabār), first attested in the writings of Iranian scholar Al-Biruni (c. 11th century). The second element is either from Arabic بَرّ (barr, “land, ground”) or from Classical Persian بَار (bār, “coast”), and the first element is the same as the Byzantine Greek toponym Μαλέ (Malé) (itself in turn derived from Malayalam മല (mala)), mentioned by traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 5th century as a source of pepper exports, concording with modern-day pepper cultivation on the Malabar coast. Mala ~ Male is, in turn, borrowed from Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”). This is also the source of the name of the language: മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ, literally “mountain place”). Compare Zanzibar for a possibly similar word formation.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.