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PlainSpell

mace

/meɪs/noun, verb

mace is spelled M-A-C-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, mace means “A heavy fighting club” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mace is maces.

How many letters and syllables are in mace?

Letters4: M-A-C-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is mace?

Mace appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce mace?

  • /meɪs/

Mace has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mace.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with mace?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as mace.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: came, acme.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of mace

  • maces plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • macing participle, present
  • maced participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does mace mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A heavy fighting club.

  2. 2

    A ceremonial form of this weapon.

  3. 3

    A long baton used by some drum majors to keep time and lead a marching band. If this baton is referred to as a mace, by convention it has a ceremonial often decorative head, which, if of metal, usually is hollow and sometimes intricately worked.

  4. 4

    An officer who carries a mace as a token of authority.

  5. 5

    A knobbed mallet used by curriers to make leather supple when dressing it.

  6. 6

    A flail.

  7. 7

    archaicA billiard cue.

  8. 8

    A spice obtained from the outer layer of the kernel of the fruit of the nutmeg.

  9. 9

    Tear gas or pepper spray, especially for personal use.

  10. 10

    An old money of account in China equal to one tenth of a tael.

  11. 11

    An old weight of 57.98 grains, approximately 3.8 grams.

verb

  1. 1

    To hit someone or something with a mace.

  2. 2

    To spray in defense or attack with mace (pepper spray or tear gas) using a hand-held device.

  3. 3

    informalTo spray a similar noxious chemical in defense or attack using an available hand-held device such as an aerosol spray can.

noun

as MACE
  1. 1

    Initialism of major adverse cardiovascular event.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Mace in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmasse, masse d'armes (weapon), macis (a spice)
GermanStreitkolben (weapon), Macis, Muskatblüte (a spice), Amtsstab (ceremonial form of this weapon), Reizstoff (tear gas and pepper spray)
Portuguesemaça (weapon), macis (a spice)
Spanishmaza, maza de armas (weapon), macis (a spice)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does mace come from?

From Middle English mace, borrowed from Old French mace, mache, from Vulgar Latin *mattia, *mattea, matia, (compare Italian mazza, Spanish maza), probably from Proto-West Germanic *mattjō (“cutting tool, hoe”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after mace