# machine

> English word · Noun · IPA /məˈʃiːn/ · frequency rank #1,346

## Definitions
1. A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect.
2. A vehicle operated mechanically, such as an automobile or an airplane.
3. An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail.
4. A computer.
5. A person or organisation that seemingly acts like a machine, being particularly efficient, single-minded, or unemotional.
6. Especially, 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.
7. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.
8. The system of special interest groups that supports a political party, especially in urban areas.
9. Penis.
10. A 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.
11. A 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.

## Easily confused with
- **Maine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-maine)
- **marine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-marine)
- **Maxine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-maxine)
- **Mackie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-mackie)
- **Manchin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-manchin)
- **machines** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-machines)
- **matching** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-matching)
- **marching** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-marching)
- **machined** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-machined)
- **machinery** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machine-vs-machinery)
- **machete** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/machete-vs-machine)

## Common misspellings (10)
`amchine`, `macchine`, `machhine`, `machien`, `machinne`, `machnie`, `macihne`, `mahcine`, `mcahine`, `mmachine`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/machine