Meaning
stain, smear
- spot, fleck
- scrub, scrubland, thicket
- blot, speck, disgrace
In a sentence
Ho una macchia di caffè sulla maglietta.
I have a coffee stain on my T-shirt.
Vedi quella macchia nera sul muro?
Do you see that black spot on the wall?
Questo errore è una macchia nel suo lavoro.
This mistake is a flaw in his work.
Word forms (2)
| Word | Word forms |
|---|---|
| macchia | feminine · singular |
| macchie | feminine · plural |
Usage notes
- Use macchia for marks on clothes, surfaces, or reputation; alone it often implies a visible stain, not a tiny dot.
- For a small round mark, punto or puntino may fit better; macchia suggests something irregular or spread out.
- In figurative use, una macchia sulla reputazione means a blemish on someone's reputation; common in neutral to formal contexts.