machine
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "machine", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "machine" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "machine" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
machine is aEnglishnoun. It means: A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect. Pronounced /məˈʃiːn/. It ranks #1,346 in English word frequency. Often confused with Maine and marine.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | machine |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /məˈʃiːn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,346 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for machine is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /məˈʃiːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,346 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for machine, with forms such as "amchine", "macchine", and "machhine". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "Maine", "marine", "Maxine", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French machine, from Latin māchina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), from Doric Greek μᾱχᾰνᾱ́ (mākhănā́), cognate with Attic Greek μηχᾰνή (mēkhănḗ, “a machine, engine, contrivance, device”), from which comes … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is machine, spelled M-A-C-H-I-N-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect.
- 2A vehicle operated mechanically, such as an automobile or an airplane.
- 3An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail.
- 4A computer.
- 5A person or organisation that seemingly acts like a machine, being particularly efficient, single-minded, or unemotional.
- 6Especially, the group that controls a political or similar organization; a combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use.
- 7Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.
- 8The system of special interest groups that supports a political party, especially in urban areas.
- 9Penis.
- 10A contrivance in the Ancient Greek theatre for indicating a change of scene, by means of which a god might cross the stage or deliver a divine message; the deus ex machina.
- 11A bathing machine.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French machine, from Latin māchina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), from Doric Greek μᾱχᾰνᾱ́ (mākhănā́), cognate with Attic Greek μηχᾰνή (mēkhănḗ, “a machine, engine, contrivance, device”), from which comes mechanical. Displaced native Old English searu.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amchine,macchine,machhine,machien,machinne,machnie,macihne,mahcine,mcahine,mmachine
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for machine
Misspelling Variants of "machine"
Frequency rank: #1,346 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: