machi

M3A1C3H4I1

noun

A traditional healer and religious leader in the Mapuche culture of Chile and Argentina.

OriginMapudungun maci →
Less commonScrabble 12
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Meanings

machi1

nounmachi (plural machis)

plural machis

  1. A traditional healer and religious leader in the Mapuche culture of Chile and Argentina.

    Many Mapuche women in La Pintana often went without health care because they did not trust conventional Western medicine or feared discrimination in public health clinics, and traveling hundreds of miles to see a machi in their communities of origin was impractical.

    2015 August 19, Pascale Bonnefoy, “Alongside a Doctor’s Care, a Dose of Traditional Healing”, in New York Times

Machi2

proper nounMachi (plural Machis)

plural Machis

  1. A surname.

Origin

machi · noun

  1. Mapudungunmaci
  2. Englishmachi

Borrowed from Mapudungun maci.

More words from Mapudungun

Full word history & related roots →

Machi · proper noun

  1. Japanese真地
  2. ItalianMachi
  3. EnglishMachi

Two possible origins: * Borrowed from Italian Machi or Machì, a surname of unexplained origin. * Borrowed from Japanese 真地 (Machi), an uncommon surname in Japan.

More words from Italian, Japanese

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

MicahChaimAchimChimaChami
Cite this entry
APA

machi. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machi

MLA

“machi.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machi. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “machi,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machi.

Source: machi on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.