Machete

//məˈʃɛ.ti// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sword-like tool used for cutting large plants with a chopping motion, or used as a weapon.

    "Near-synonyms: (all sometimes or regionally synonymous) bolo, golok, panga, parang, sundang"

  2. 2
    a large heavy knife used as a weapon or for cutting vegetation wordnet
  3. 3
    A small stringed instrument from Madeira, Portugal, having a double bulged body, traditionally of wood, with a small rib and four metallic strings, sometimes attached by wooden pegs.
Verb
  1. 1
    To cut or chop with a machete. transitive

    "After some hours of intense work, we had macheted a path through the jungle to the bank of the river."

Synonyms

All synonyms
pangaboloboloedge toolgolokhatchet

Example

More examples

"Tom hacked Mary's leg off with a rusty machete."

Etymology

From Spanish machete, diminutive of macho (“sledgehammer”), from Latin mattea, possibly from mactare (“slaughter in sacrifice”); cognate with Old French machier, French massue, English mace.

Related phrases

machete beta

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.