malapropos
Americanadjective
adverb
adjective
adverb
noun
Etymology
Origin of malapropos
First recorded in 1660–70, malapropos is from French mal à propos “badly (suited) to the purpose”
Explanation
It would be malapropos to wear full clown makeup to your cousin's formal wedding. In other words, it wouldn't be appropriate. Use the adjective malapropos to describe something that is awkwardly unsuitable for the situation or setting at hand. Telling jokes at a funeral or bringing your pet piglet to tea at the Queen's castle would both be highly malapropos. The word comes from the French phrase mal à propos, literally "badly for the purpose." As it's French, you don't pronounce the final s.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On the other hand, never express dissatisfaction with a response, however absurd or malapropos it may be.
From The Measurement of Intelligence An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale by Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson
It was a remark that seemed particularly malapropos to the sultry weather, and Constance half expected a burst of laughter at the unexpected sally.
From Constance Dunlap by Reeve, Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin)
Nothing occurred to mar the pleasure of the hour, except a trifling incident that might be construed as malapropos and post-meridian by the hypercritical.
From Rolling Stones by Henry, O.
And Bayle, in his somewhat diffuse discourses, has forgotten himself so far as to do Richeome the honour of annotating him very malapropos.
From Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire
Its suggestions were so visionary, its reasoning so fallacious, its assumptions so unwarranted, its conclusions so malapropos, that it falls below critical examination.
From A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History by Nicolay, John George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
