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.
Johnnie Green chose this malapropos moment for reminding the officers of the reason for the coming to the house.
From The Big-Town Round-Up by William MacLeod Raine
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 John George Nicolay
Bridgie, detained at home by malapropos ailments on the part of the children, wrote urgent letters by daily posts, contradicting herself on every point saving one alone—the advisability of delay.
From The Love Affairs of Pixie by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
As far as Mostyn was concerned, this first malapropos meeting indicated the whole evening.
From The Man Between, an International Romance by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
Fanny made malapropos speeches sometimes still, but they were never unkindly meant now, and she looked with very loving eyes from one sister to the other.
From Janet's Love and Service by Margaret M. (Margaret Murray) Robertson
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.
