matador
Americannoun
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matadors
plural
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the principal bullfighter in a bullfight who passes the bull with a muleta and then, in many countries, kills it with a sword thrust; a torero.
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one of the principal cards in skat and certain other games.
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(initial capital letter) a jet-powered U.S. surface-to-surface missile.
noun
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the principal bullfighter who is appointed to kill the bull
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(in some card games such as skat) one of the highest ranking cards
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a game played with dominoes in which the dots on adjacent halves must total seven
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of matador
1665–75; < Spanish, equivalent to mata ( r ) to kill (perhaps < Vulgar Latin *mattāre, presumed derivative of Late Latin mattus soft, weak; cf. matte 1) +- dor -tor
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
His name is Mikel Merino, and he’s fast turning into Spain’s World Cup matador.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Set in Mexico, the film stars Mexican-born Anthony Quinn as a brilliant but aging matador facing interlocking personal crises, and Maureen O’Hara as the wealthy American who sets her cap for him.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
This relentless bull market may finally have found its matador.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
The ghost of young matador Pedro Romero, the quiet center of Jake’s storm, waits on the bullring sand.
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025
They unfolded the dark-stained red flannel of the muletas and fixed batons in them to spread the stuff and give the matador something to hold.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
The two matadors had already faced off twice in the preceding weeks, and each time Manolete found himself at odds with the public, as the crowds thronged behind Dominguín instead.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2022
Wagon-wheel chandelier, cereal boxes, dirty dishes, green shag carpet, orange vinyl couch patched with duct tape, two sad-looking boys dressed as matadors staring from a painting on the wall.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 29, 2018
Shown nearby are paintings of matadors, which have a child-like quality but were made by Picasso towards the end of his life in the early 1970s.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 26, 2017
Elsewhere in the Great Hall at London's iconic Alexandra Palace, a motley crew of skeletons, nuns, Elvis Presleys, matadors, and rather disheveled Santas, were partying hard -- all in the name of darts.
From Reuters ● Dec. 25, 2014
I looked through the glasses and saw the three matadors.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
