noun · 8 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/ˈmæk(ə)ɹəl/
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -ækɹəl
CMU ARPABET:M AE1 K ER0 AH0 L
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
Certain smaller edible fish, principally true mackerel and Spanish mackerel in family Scombridae, often speckled,
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Certain smaller edible fish, principally true mackerel and Spanish mackerel in family Scombridae, often speckled,
Typically Scomber scombrus in the British isles.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
1982, Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Chapter 5, in Zami; Sister Outsider; Undersong, New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993, p. 47, “ [...] if you ever so much as breathe a word about my stories, Sandman’s comin’ after you the very same minute to pluck out you eyes like a mackerel for soup.”
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
A true mackerel, any fish of tribe Scombrini (Scomber spp., Rastrelliger spp.)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
Certain other similar small fish in families Carangidae, Gempylidae, and Hexagrammidae.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
A regular pattern, similar to fish scales, of undulating small clouds with sky visible between them.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: attributive, countable, uncountable
Qualifier: the sky; etc; the sky; etc
Examples
a mackerel sky
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
noun
Meaning 6
A pimp; also, a bawd.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
Examples
1483, William Caxton, Magnus Cato, quoted in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century, vol. 2, publ. by John Russell Smith (1847), page 536. [...] nyghe his hows dwellyd a maquerel or bawde [...]
2006, Paul Crowley, Message-ID: in humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare https://web.archive.org/web/20201001221812/https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare/VarPp2-HSO0/QuMJdNOwfisJ A procurer or a pimp is a broker (or broker-between), a mackerel, or a pandar; the last is not necessarily-and, indeed, not usually-a professional.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
noun
Meaning 7
any of various fishes of the family Scombridae
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
flesh of very important usually small (to 18 in) fatty Atlantic fish
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: saltwater fish
Narrower terms: Spanish mackerel, smoked mackerel
History
Etymology
From Middle English mackerell, macrell, macrelle, makarell, makerel, makerell, makerelle, makrel, makrell, makyrelle, from Old French maquerel. Further origin unknown.
From Middle English makerel, maquerel, from Old French maquerel, from Middle Dutch makelare, makelaer (“broker”) (> makelaar (“broker, peddler”)). See also French maquereau.
Across languages
Translations
89 source translations are retained for this English entry.
