English Explanatory Dictionary

MA

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Initialism of moving average.
noun
  1. Initialism of Master of Arts.
  2. Initialism of mature audience, a television rating.
  3. Initialism of master-at-arms.
name
  1. Abbreviation of Massachusetts: a state of the United States.
  2. Abbreviation of Maluku: a province of Indonesia.
  3. Abbreviation of Maranhão: a state of Brazil.
  4. Abbreviation of Mastercard.
noun
  1. Abbreviation of milli-arcsecond.
noun
  1. mother, mama
  2. The landlady of a theater.
noun
  1. May.
det
  1. Alternative spelling of my.
particle
  1. Alternative form of mah.
particle
  1. Alternative spelling of mah.
noun
  1. Negative space in Japanese art.
noun
  1. Mother, mom, mama.
name
  1. Abbreviation of May.
name
  1. A common surname from Chinese of East Asian derivation.
name
  1. A language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Pronunciation

/mɑː/ en-us-ma.ogg

Word forms

MA MAs

Etymology

The sound, which parents interpret as a reference to themselves, is very commonly made by infants. For more on the linguistic process whereby infants' monosyllables are tied to ancient word roots for parents, see mama, papa, mātēr, and patēr.

Synonyms

mama mamma mater maw mom mommy mother mum mummy

Related words

MAA pa Wiktionary’s coverage of Ma terms

Derived words

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