Machiavelli

name, noun

name, noun ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Someone like Niccolò Machiavelli: a Machiavellian person
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman and writer, whose work The Prince (1532) advises that acquiring and exercising power may require unethical methods.

Synonyms

All synonyms
actorartful dodgercasanovacharmercounterfeiterdeluder

Example

More examples

"Was Machiavelli really that Machiavellian?"

Etymology

Probably from Italian mal- + chiavello, in which the second component is a diminutive of chiavo (“nail”). The name is attested in a Late Latin document in the form Malclavelli.

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