It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for May 3rd.

Today's word is Malay, also pronounced Malay, and spelled MELE, Malay is a noun.

It refers to a confused fight or struggle, especially one involving hand-to-hand combat.

Here's the word used in a sentence from foreign policy.

The battle scenes are a Hollywood mishmash of medieval Malayslays, meaningless canonades, and World War I style infantry advances.

English has no shortage of words for confused and noisy fights, some like Frey, braw, or scrap, more common than others, like

Donnie Brook or Fracas.

Malay tends to be encountered more often in written rather than spoken English, but it is far

from obscure and has seen increasing use especially in the context of video games featuring

some form of hand-to-hand combat.

Such games allow players to mix it up with all manner of rivals and baddies from the

comfort and safety of their home, with mix being an especially apt word

alongside melee. The latter comes from the French word mele which in turn comes from

the old French verb meleae, meaning to mix.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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