mate
Portuguese, noun/ˈma.t͡ʃi/
mate is spelled M-A-T-E (4 letters) and appears 11 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 6,991st most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Mate is a Portuguese masculine noun meaning “maté (Ilex paraguariensis) (a shrub native to southern South America)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present subjunctive of matar. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “lance final no jogo do xadrez em que o rei sofre ataque indefensável, o mesmo que xeque-mate”.
What does mate mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinematé (Ilex paraguariensis) (a shrub native to southern South America)
- 2
masculinematé (a beverage prepared from the leaves of this plant)
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- 2
third-person singular imperative
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. sem brilho 2. fosco; pálido; embaciado
noun: 1. lance final no jogo do xadrez em que o rei sofre ataque indefensável, o mesmo que xeque-mate 2. ponto de meia em que se apanham duas malhas de uma só vez 3. arbusto da América do Sul cujas folhas servem para preparar o chá-mate ou congonha (Ilex paraguariensis)
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce mate?
- Brazil /ˈma.t͡ʃi/
- Portugal /ˈma.tɨ/
- [ˈma.t͡ʃɪ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to mate
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is mate in Portuguese?
mate appears 11 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).