Meaning
pig
- pork
In a sentence
Il maiale è nel recinto della fattoria.
The pig is in the farm pen.
Hai comprato il maiale per la cena?
Did you buy the pork for dinner?
Non mangio maiale, oggi scelgo il pollo.
I don't eat pork, today I'm choosing chicken.
Word forms (2)
| Word | Word forms |
|---|---|
| maiale | masculine · singular |
| maiali | masculine · plural |
Usage notes
- Use maiale for the animal. For the meat, carne di maiale is clearer; just maiale for pork is common but more context-dependent.
- As an insult, maiale means “pig” in the moral sense: dirty, greedy, or sexually crude. It is informal and offensive.
- The feminine is maiala when referring to a female person insultingly; for the animal, scrofa specifically means an adult female pig.