Refine this word faster

Stronger alternatives Opposite tone Use in context Cross-language nuance

Related Topic Clusters

Academic and Essay Vocabulary

Precise wording for thesis statements, evidence framing, and conclusion clarity.

Sales and Marketing Copy Words

Conversion-oriented language for landing pages, ads, and lifecycle campaigns.

Professional Email and Tone Control

Phrase libraries for clearer, faster, and lower-friction professional communication.

Ma

//mɑː// adj, det, name, noun, particle, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Initialism of moving average. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, not-comparable
Determiner
  1. 1
    Alternative spelling of my. alt-of, alternative, dialectal, informal
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Abbreviation of Massachusetts: a state of the United States. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable
  2. 2
    Abbreviation of May. abbreviation, alt-of
  3. 3
    A common surname from Chinese of East Asian derivation.
  4. 4
    A language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  5. 5
    Abbreviation of Maluku: a province of Indonesia. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    Abbreviation of Maranhão: a state of Brazil. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable
  2. 7
    Abbreviation of Mastercard. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable

    "Shares of Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) moved slightly higher after the deal was announced."

Noun
  1. 1
    Initialism of Master of Arts. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  2. 2
    Abbreviation of milli-arcsecond. abbreviation, alt-of, plural-normally
  3. 3
    mother, mama colloquial

    "Once the silky gent who ran a barge called the Knuckle Sandwich tried to persuade Borglum's ma and da to sell him their little dwarfish boy for twelve gold coins."

  4. 4
    May.
  5. 5
    Negative space in Japanese art. uncountable
Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    Mother, mom, mama. informal, uncountable
  2. 7
    a master's degree in arts and sciences wordnet
  3. 8
    Initialism of mature audience, a television rating. US, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  4. 9
    The landlady of a theater. colloquial

    "[…] that dear little man writing in the guestbook of the "Ma" or theatrical landlady […]"

  5. 10
    informal terms for a mother wordnet
  6. 11
    Initialism of master-at-arms; also MAA. US, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
  7. 12
    one thousandth of an ampere wordnet
Particle
  1. 1
    Alternative form of mah. Manglish, Singlish, alt-of, alternative
  2. 2
    Alternative spelling of mah. alt-of, alternative

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

Abbreviation.

Etymology 3

From my.

Etymology 4

From Cantonese 嘛 (maa³, “of course!”).

Etymology 5

From Mandarin 嗎／吗 (ma).

Etymology 6

Japanese 間

Etymology 7

Transcription of 馬／马 (mǎ).

See also for "ma"

Synonyms Antonyms Rhymes Sentences Translate Word Type Pronunciation Word Forms

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciation

Mini challenge

Want a quick game? Try Word Finder.