Ayah

//ˈaɪ.ə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A South Asian female servant, maid or nanny, historically, often one working for Europeans in South Asia.

    "She manufactured the Station scandal, and talked to her ayah."

  2. 2
    A verse in the Quran.
  3. 3
    (in India) a native nursemaid who looks after children wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
amahau pair girlayatbiddychambermaidchaperon

Example

More examples

"From which Surah is this Ayah from?"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From various Indian languages (e.g. Hindi आया (āyā, “dry nurse, nanny”)), from Portuguese aia (“nurse, governess”), from Latin avia (“grandmother”).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Arabic آيَة (ʔāya, “sign, token”).

More for "ayah"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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