Machiavel
Machiavel noun: a person who follows the principles laid down by Niccolò Machiavelli.
Noun
Machiavel (plural Machiavels)
- A person who follows the principles laid down by Niccolò Machiavelli.
- A schemer or intriguer.
- The distinction is between the anonymous Continental Op of the detective novel, the man of honour who must nevertheless walk down mean streets, and the thoroughgoing Machiavel, the man who has learned not to be good.1988, Susan Mendus, “The Serpent and the Dove”, in Philosophy, LXIII, № 245, page 339
- In pursuit of these ends, agents will find themselves in conflict with morality and we want them to be the sorts of people who can reject morality, yet we don’t want them to be Machiavels in the worst sense.ibidem, page 340
Forms of Machiavel
| plural | Machiavels |
|---|
Origin of Machiavel
An Anglicisation of the Italian surname Machiavelli, as borne by Niccolò Machiavelli.
Words formed from Machiavel
Questions about Machiavel
- What does Machiavel mean?
- Machiavel means a person who follows the principles laid down by Niccolò Machiavelli.
- What part of speech is Machiavel?
- Machiavel is a noun.
- What is the plural of Machiavel?
- The plural of Machiavel is Machiavels.
Words near Machiavel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Machiavel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “Machiavel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/machiavel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.