matar.
to kill, slay
Meaning & usage
to kill, slay
Te van a matar, sin piedad.
to put out, extinguish (a flame or light)
to butcher
to injure, damage
to fatigue, exhaust, tire out
to dull (render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish)
to round off
to ruin
to kill (to annoy)
Me está matando la espalda.
to kill (to get mad at)
to kill (to amaze, exceed, stun)
to beat (to be better than)
to postmark
to kill oneself, to commit suicide
to be killed, to meet one’s death
to become galled, to become chafed, to get sores (said of horses)
to wear oneself out
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ḱ- Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱtósder. Proto-Italic *maktos Latin mactus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin mactāre? Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d-der. Proto-Italic *madēō Latin madēre Latin *maditus Late Latin mattusder.? Vulgar Latin *mattāre? Proto-Indo-European *met-der. Proto-Indo-European *mot-(i-) Latin *matea Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -ola Latin mateola Vulgar Latin *ma(t)tea Spanish maza ▲ Latin -āre Old Spanish -ar Spanish -ar Spanish mazar? Proto-Afroasiatic *mawut- Proto-Semitic *mawut- Arabic مَاتَ (māta)der.? Spanish matar Several possibilities: * From Latin mactāre (through a Vulgar Latin *mattāre). Thus, a potential cognate with English mactate. * From Vulgar Latin *mattāre, from Late Latin mattus (“drunk, intoxicated”), related to madidus. Compare Portuguese and Catalan matar, archaic Italian mattare. * From Spanish mazar, in turn from maza (“mace, club”); compare Italian ammazzare (“to kill”). * From Arabic مَاتَ (māta, “to die”), compare Persian مات (mât), the probable source of the second part of English checkmate.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.