Amma

//ˈʌmə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    mother India
  2. 2
    An abbess or spiritual mother, especially one of the Desert Mothers. historical

    "For quotations using this term, see Citations:amma."

Synonyms

All synonyms
anaask me anything

Example

More examples

"Many, like Tracy from suburban New Jersey, learned about Amma only recently, and decided to come see her in the hope that Amma might sooth the emotional pain they feel."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Related to Tamil அம்மா (ammā, “mother”), Hindi अम्मा (ammā), Malayalam അമ്മ (amma), Kannada ಅಮ್ಮ (amma, “mother”) Telugu అమ్మ (amma, “mother”), Sinhalese අම්මා (ammā, “mother”), or Classical Syriac ܐܡܐ (emma, “mother”).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin amma, from Classical Syriac ܐܸܡܵܐ (ʾemmā, “mother, abbess”).

Related phrases

amma canteen

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.