Word.ws English Dictionary

Machiavelli

Machiavelli proper noun: niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman and writer, whose work The Prince (1532) advises that acquiring and exercising power may require unethical methods.

Proper noun

Machiavelli

  1. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman and writer, whose work The Prince (1532) advises that acquiring and exercising power may require unethical methods.
    • As Mannheim observed, this idea goes back beyond Marx; the hypocrisy of moral ideals, religious beliefs, and philosophical doctrines was pointed out by Machiavelli, and between Marx and Mannheim we can find similar ideas in Nietzsche and Sorel.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in...

Noun

Machiavelli (plural Machiavellis)

  1. Someone like Niccolò Machiavelli: a Machiavellian person

Machiavelli meaning in Kannada

Machiavelli in Kannada

ಕಳಿಂಗ, ಕೌಟಿಲ್ಯ, ತಂತ್ರಗಾರ, ಮೋಸ

Forms of Machiavelli

pluralMachiavellis

Origin of Machiavelli

Probably from Italian mal- + chiavello, in which the second component is a diminutive of chiavo (“nail”). The name is attested in a Late Latin document in the form Malclavelli.

Words formed from Machiavelli

Phrases with Machiavelli

Questions about Machiavelli

What does Machiavelli mean?
Machiavelli means niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman and writer, whose work The Prince (1532) advises that acquiring and exercising power may require unethical methods.
What is Machiavelli in Kannada?
Machiavelli in Kannada is ಕಳಿಂಗ, ಕೌಟಿಲ್ಯ, ತಂತ್ರಗಾರ. See Machiavelli meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is Machiavelli?
Machiavelli can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Machiavelli in the dictionary

  1. Machiasport
  2. Machiavel
  3. Machiavelian
  4. Machiavelianism
  5. Machiavelism
  6. Machiavelli
  7. machiavellian
  8. Machiavellianism
  9. Machiavellianisms
  10. Machiavellianist
  11. Machiavellianists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Machiavelli (page history and authors); Machiavelli (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: “Machiavelli.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/machiavelli. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.