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.
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 Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
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
She took, in this malapropos manoeuvre, the same delight that a child experiences through the consciousness of being engaged in some mischievous wrong.
From With the Procession by Fuller, Henry Blake
Your attacks do choose the most malapropos times——" "Oh, dear no, George!
From Frances Waldeaux by Davis, Rebecca Harding
This malapropos and singularly inconsistent suggestion broke up the assemblage at once, in great disorder—volunteering being just the last thing that any one thought of doing.
From The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers. Series 2 by Newell, R. H. (Robert Henry)
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.
