What you meant & what you said are two diferent things.
"MacBooks" are a computer model that Apple used to sell. So accuracy is important.
As to the title of the thread,
"Can any macbook work/use 32gb of ram if there is a compatible 16gb stick?"
Whether you meant "MacBook" or "MacBook Pro"...the answer to this is no. A "MacBook Pro" from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, etc...that doesn't even have a max. ram of 16gig...certainly isn't going to be able to utilize 16gig ram modules (for a max. ram of 32gig).
To add to this. The newest "MacBook Pro's" cannot even upgrade their ram. Thus 16gig ram modules will not work in them either.
AND...one more thing. The newest "MacBook Pro's" that can have their ram upgraded...originally had a max. ram of 8gig. To the best of my knowledge...Apple has never released a laptop computer (that had upgradeable ram) which had an "Official max. ram endorsed by Apple" that was greater than 8gig. There are some "MacBook Pro" models that do have a "true max. ram" of 16gig...but this is not something that is officially stated by Apple.
This means that these MacBook Pro's (that have an official Apple max. ram of 8gig)...would have to be capable of a 4x increase in thier max. ram capacity versus what Apple officially states. This has NEVER happened with any Macintosh laptop/notebook product EVER! It has been possible with a number of computer models to have a 2x greater max. ram than Apple states...but never a 4x increase.
So again...you need to be VERY specific and accurate as to what computer model/models you are speaking about.
- Nick