Mackem

//ˈmakəm// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A native or inhabitant of Sunderland, England. derogatory, sometimes

    "Your article on England's regional accents confirmed that Geordie has already completely replaced the mackem-speak of Sunderland and other variants in the north-east."

  2. 2
    a native of Sunderland wordnet
  3. 3
    A Sunderland A.F.C. supporter.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The dialect spoken in these areas.

Synonyms

All synonyms
sunderlander

Example

More examples

"In the spoken parts of the track, you can hear her Mackem accent."

Etymology

From regional form of make + 'em, generally linked to the history of shipbuilding in Sunderland. In relation to the nearby port of Newcastle, Sunderlanders would supposedly say "we mack 'em and they tack 'em", with tack being either a regional form of "take" or referring to any of the nautical senses of tack.

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