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Definition of malformed

malformed

/mælˈfɔːrmd/
mal · formed
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malformed Lexical Profile

malformed Game Scores & Validity

• adjective

1

Abnormally or imperfectly shaped or structured, especially of a body part or organism due to defective development.

Example

"Calcium deficiency in the soil often causes the developing tomatoes to become stunted and malformed."

2

Improperly formatted or failing to conform to the syntactic rules of a formal language, protocol, or data format (in computing and linguistics).

Example

"The web server rejected the request because it contained a malformed URL."

Synonyms
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Antonyms
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• Rhymes for malformed

• Nearby Words

malevolent
malevolently
malformation
malformed
malfunction
mali
mali cobra

Word Origin & Etymology

Coined in the early 19th century from the prefix mal- ('badly', from Latin malus) and the adjective formed, modeled after French malformé.

Usage Trend

Historical frequency of usage in published text.

180019102020
Data source: Google Books Ngram Viewer

Cite this Entry

Wordmom. (2026). Definition of Malformed. In Wordmom Dictionary. Retrieved Nov 5, 2026, from https://wordmom.com/dictionary/malformed
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