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PORTUGUESE · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mal.

badly (in a faulty, dysfunctional or incorrect manner)

3 characters1 syllables approx.Português language

Meaning & usage

adv/ˈmaw/Brazil[ˈmaʊ̯]Brazil/ˈmal/Portugal[ˈmaɫ]Portugal
  1. badly (in a faulty, dysfunctional or incorrect manner)

    comparable
    O carro está a funcionar/funcionando bem mal.
    (O) João fala inglês mal.
  2. hardly; barely

    comparable
    Ele mal consegue estudar com todo este barulho.
  3. wrong (incorrect)

    comparable
    A resposta está mal.
  4. unfavourably (in an unfavourable manner)

    comparable
    Penso mal de ti.
    Ele fala mal de ti.
  5. evilly

    comparable · in-compounds
    mal-assombrado
    mal-agourado
Where this word comes from

From Old Galician-Portuguese mal, from Latin male (“badly; wrongly”).

conj/ˈmaw/Brazil[ˈmaʊ̯]Brazil/ˈmal/Portugal[ˈmaɫ]Portugal
  1. have/had just; have/had barely

    Mal tinha saído quando a encontrei.
Where this word comes from

From Old Galician-Portuguese mal, from Latin male (“badly; wrongly”).

noun/ˈmaw/Brazil[ˈmaʊ̯]Brazil/ˈmal/Portugal[ˈmaɫ]Portugal
  1. evil (malevolent forces or behaviour)

    masculine · uncountable
    As forças do mal cercaram o castelo.
  2. harm

    masculine
    Ela não fez por mal.
    Não faz mal.
  3. malady (any ailment or disease, especially a lingering one)

    masculine
    mal de Parkinson
    Males como a SIDA e pneumonia são mortais.
Where this word comes from

From Latin malus. Compare Italian male, Sicilian mali.

adj/ˈmaw/Brazil[ˈmaʊ̯]Brazil/ˈmal/Portugal[ˈmaɫ]Portugal
  1. misspelling of mau

    Brazil · alt-of · misspelling
Where this word comes from

From Latin malus. Compare Italian male, Sicilian mali.

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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.