malus

M3A1L1U1S1
/ˈmeɪ.ləs//ˈmɑː.ləs//ˈmæ.ləs/

noun

The loss or return of performance-related compensation originally paid by an employer to an employee as a result of the discovery of a defect in the performance.

“When bank fired the loan originator, they recovered the last two years of her bonuses under the malus clause in her contract.”

UncommonScrabble 7

Meanings

malus1

nounmalus (plural maluses or mali)

plural maluses · plural mali

  1. businessThe loss or return of performance-related compensation originally paid by an employer to an employee as a result of the discovery of a defect in the performance.

    When bank fired the loan originator, they recovered the last two years of her bonuses under the malus clause in her contract.

    5 more examples

    The existence of boni and mali for the different risks can be interpreted through the sign of estimated covariances.

    c. 1997, ASTIN Bulletin, page 48

    If the boni and mali do not depend on the frequency of claims, the average bonus-malus coefficient increases with the frequency.

    2000, Jean Pinquet, “Experience Rating through Heterogeneous Models”, in Georges Dionne, editor, Handbook of Insurance, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 462

    Bidders with inferior quality, higher transport costs or additional switching costs receive a Malus which decreases their bid automatically to incorporate the disadvantages. Bonus Malus Auctions are used by about 50% of all companies.

    2008, Henner Gimpel, Nicolas R. Jennings, Gregory E. Kersten, Axel Ockenfels, Christof Weinhardt, Negotiation, Auctions, and Market Engineering: International Seminar, Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, November 12-17, 2006, Revised Selected Papers, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 62

    Akramkhanov et al. (2010) also suggested a system of boni and mali on taxes to support the implementation of measures to achieve both water saving and salinity control (Table 3.3.1).

    2014, Akmal Akramkhanov, Bernhard Tischbein, Usman Khalid Awan, “Effective management of soil salinity – revising leaching norms”, in John P. A. Lamers, Asia Khamzina, Inna Rudenko, Paul L. G. Vlek, editors, Restructuring Land Allocation, Water Use and Agricultural Value Chains: Technologies, Policies and Practices for the Lower Amudarya Region, V & R unipress, Bonn University Press, →ISBN, page 131

    If both the estimated payment- and checking-rate is not above a threshold in a district, the contracted party will receive a malus for that district, and no bonus for any other district.

    2016, David Aveiro, Robert Pergl, Duarte Gouveia, Advances in Enterprise Engineering X: 6th Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, EEWC 2016, Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal, May 30-June 3 2016, Proceedings, Springer, →ISBN, page 26
  2. rareA penalty or negative thing.
    1 more example

    The driver game has a game screen with less number of properties and representations (see Fig. 3(a)). […] If the user completes a level within the allocated time, then the user gets a bonus and will be advanced to another level[,] and if user is unable to complete a level, then a malus is provided and the user gets retained in the same level.

    2016, Rosa Bottino, Johan Jeuring, Remco C. Veltkamp, Games and Learning Alliance: 5th International Conference, GALA 2016, Utrecht, The Netherlands, December 5–7, 2016, Proceedings, Springer, →ISBN, page 305

malus2

nounmalus (plural maluses)

plural maluses

  1. A plant of the genus Malus (the apples).

    In gardens which are rather open and exposed, the ornamental crabs or maluses are generally less satisfactory than the cherries as flowering trees.

    1968, Agriculture in Northern Ireland, volume 43, page 290
    2 more examples

    It leads to a certain extent to an evergreen type Docynia which is distributed in the Himalayas and western China and whose magnificence of bloom I learned to know on my travels in Yunnan; it is distinct from genuine maluses.

    1922, Gardener’s Chronicle of America, volume 26, page 228, column 2

    Malus ‘Dartmouth’ is a variety of M. pumila, the wild crab-apple, and is only one of the several maluses which offer a wider choice than the commonly planted ‘John Downie,’ lemoinei and eleyi.

    1959, Gardeners Chronicle & Gardening Illustrated, volume 145, page 65, column 2

    Synonyms: apple

malus3

noun
  1. pluralplural of malu

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA plant of the genus Malus (the apples).

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Origin

malus · noun

  1. Latinmalus
  2. Englishmalus

From Latin malus, by analogy with bonus (“additional compensation”). Doublet of mal.

Full word history & related roots →

malus · noun

  1. translingualMalus
  2. Latinmālus
  3. Englishmalus

From Latin mālus and translingual Malus.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

malus. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/malus

MLA

“malus.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/malus. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “malus,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/malus.

Source: malus on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.