Machismo

//mɑːˈt͡ʃiz.moʊ// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An excessive masculine pride. informal, uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    exaggerated masculinity wordnet
  3. 3
    exaggerated masculinity uncountable, usually

    "September 1971, Germaine Greer, "My Mailer Problem", in Esquire The tragedy of machismo is that a man is never quite man enough."

  4. 4
    characteristic, behavior or particularity of Male; Macheza. uncountable, usually
  5. 5
    male chauvinism, misogyny uncountable, usually

    "PSP [Puerto Rican Socialist Party] spokesperson Victor Lopez-Tosado told GCN: "[…] The party is mainly organized in a Latin American country where oppression, as a result of machismo, etc., to homosexuals is very common.""

Synonyms

All synonyms
bravadobraveryfemismomachoismmachoismmachoness

Example

More examples

"The tragedy of machismo is that a man is never quite man enough."

Etymology

First attested 1940, from American Spanish machismo, from Spanish macho (“male”), + suffix -ismo (“-ism”).

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