malpli

Esperanto

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *(s)molos?

Proto-Italic *malos

Archaic Latin malos

Latin malus

Latin maleder.

Old French mal-

Middle French mal-

French mal-bor.

Italian mal-bor.

Esperanto mal-

Latin plūs

Old French plus

Middle French plus

French plusder.

Esperanto pli

Esperanto malpli

From mal- (“opposite of”) + pli (“more”). First attested in 1888.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmalpli/

• Audio 1:

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• Audio 2:

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• Rhymes: -alpli
• Syllabification: mal‧pli
• Hyphenation: mal‧pli

Adverb

malpli

2. less

   Antonym: pli

   • 2025 September 29, Jorge Nogueras, “La plej mallonga tago”, in uea.facila‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 December 2025:

     Novelo estas skribita rakonto, malpli longa ol romano.

     A novella is a written story, shorter than a novel.

     (literally, “A novella is a written story, less long than a novel.”)

Related terms

• malplej

Further reading

Grammatical texts

• Wennergren, Bertilo (1997-present), “14.3.15. Pli, plej”, in Plena Manlibro de Esperanta Gramatiko‎^[2], Malpli, malplej
• Kalocsay; Waringhien (1985), “Komparacio”, in Plena Analiza Gramatiko‎^[3], →ISBN, page 92, line 1.a

Monolingual dictionaries

• “malpli”, in Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto [Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto], 2020, →ISBN
• “malpli”, in Reta Vortaro [Online Dictionary] (in Esperanto), 1997-2026
• Eichholz, Rüdiger (1988), “malpli”, in Esperanta Bildvortaro, →ISBN, page 595, line 20
• Bein, Kazimierz (1922), “pli”, in Vortaro de Esperanto‎^[4], →OL, page 123

Multilingual dictionaries

• Wells, John C. (1992), “off”, in Concise Esperanto and English Dictionary‎^[5], →ISBN, page 319
• Benson, Peter J. (1995), “down”, in Comprehensive English-Esperanto Dictionary‎^[6], →ISBN, page 173
• Butler, Montagu C. (1967), “pli”, in Esperanto-English Dictionary‎^[7], →OL, pages 320-321