Skip to main content
PlainSpell

Machiavellianism

/ˌmækiəˈvɛliənɪzəm/noun

Machiavellianism is a noun meaning “The political philosophy of Machiavelli, especially the realist doctrine which emphasizes the maintenance of the state above ethical concerns” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-A-C-H-I-A-V-E-L-L-I-A-N-I-S-M, and it appears about once in every 23 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of Machiavellianism is Machiavellianisms.

What does Machiavellianism mean?

noun

  1. 1

    The political philosophy of Machiavelli, especially the realist doctrine which emphasizes the maintenance of the state above ethical concerns.

  2. 2

    A political maneuver that exemplifies the philosophy. Unsavory government politics.

  3. 3

    A psychological construct centered on interpersonal manipulation, lack of empathy, cold affect, and indifference to morality.

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

How do you pronounce Machiavellianism?

  • /ˌmækiəˈvɛliənɪzəm/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Machiavellianism.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of Machiavellianism

  • Machiavellianisms plural
  • Machiavelianism
  • Machiavellism

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

How common is Machiavellianism?

Machiavellianism appears about once in every 23 million words in written English, the 146,811th 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).

Machiavellianism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmachiavélisme (philosophy)
GermanMachiavellismus (philosophy), Realpolitik (political maneuver)
Portuguesemaquiavelismo (philosophy)
Spanishmaquiavelismo (philosophy)

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 Machiavellianism come from?

From Machiavellian + -ism.

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