What it means
مچ (moch) is the joint where the hand meets the forearm, or where the foot meets the leg. In English those are two separate words, wrist and ankle, but Persian uses one word for the joint itself. It comes from old Iranian roots, related to an ancient word for fist. To make it clear which joint you mean, people add the body part: مچ دست (moch-e dast) for wrist and مچ پا (moch-e pâ) for ankle. A close relative is بند (band), another word for a joint, though مچ is what people reach for in daily speech.
How to use it
- مچ دستم درد میکنه. (moch-e dastam dard mikone.) “My wrist hurts.”
- مچ پام پیچ خورد. (moch-e pâm pich khord.) “I twisted my ankle.”
- ساعت رو دور مچش بست. (sâat ro dowr-e mochesh bast.) “He fastened the watch around his wrist.”
- مچش رو گرفتم. (mochesh ro gereftam.) “I caught him red-handed.”
Cultural note
Because مچ covers both wrist and ankle, learners often pause to add دست or پا, and native speakers do the same when context is not obvious. The word also lives in a very common idiom: مچ کسی را گرفتن (moch-e kasi râ gereftan) means to catch someone in the act, usually doing something they should not. You hear it about a child caught taking sweets or someone caught in a lie, and the image is literally grabbing them by the wrist as they reach for it.