Hamas

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A Palestinian Islamist militant group and political organization.
name
  1. Alternative form of Hamas.

Pronunciation

/həˈmɑs/ /həˈmæs/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Hamas.wav

Word forms

Hamas Khamas

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic حَمَاس (ḥamās, literally “enthusiasm”), an acronym for حَرَكَة اَلْمُقَاوَمَةِ الْإِسْلَامِيَّةِ (ḥarakat al-muqāwama l-ʔislāmiyya, “Islamic Resistance Movement”). A few speakers pronounce it with /x/ to imitate Hebrew חַמַאס instead.

Derived words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.