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macrame

/ˈmækɹəˌmeɪ/noun, verb

macrame is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of macramé” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-A-C-R-A-M-E and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 10 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of macrame is macrames or macramés.

What does macrame mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Alternative spelling of macramé.

noun

as macramé
  1. 1

    A form of decorative textile made by knotting and weaving.

verb

as macramé
  1. 1

    To create textiles using the macramé technique.

verb

  1. 1

    Alternative spelling of macramé.

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

How do you pronounce macrame?

  • /ˈmækɹəˌmeɪ/
  • /məˈkɹɑːmi/
  • /məˈkɹɑːmeɪ/

Macrame has 3 syllables (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).

Forms of macrame

  • macrames plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • macrameing participle, present
  • macrameed participle, past
  • macramed participle, past
  • macramés plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • macraméing participle, present
  • macraméed participle, past
  • macraméd participle, past

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

How common is macrame?

Macrame appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 94,827th 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).

Macrame in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense textile:

LanguageWords
Frenchmacramé
GermanMakramee
Portuguesemacramé
Spanishmacramé

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 macrame come from?

1865, borrowed from French macramé, from Italian macramè, from Ottoman Turkish مقرمه (makrame), from Arabic مِقْرَمَة (miqrama, “ornamental fringe, embroidered veil”), from مِقْرَم (miqram, “bedspread”), from قَرَمَ (qarama, “to gnaw”), from Proto-Semitic *q-r-m.

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