Lima

//ˈlaɪmə// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Lima bean.

    "We had limas with dinner last night."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of Lima from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet. alt-of
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The capital city of Peru.
  2. 2
    A province in Peru.
  3. 3
    A number of places in the United States:; A township and village therein, in Adams County, Illinois.
  4. 4
    A number of places in the United States:; A township in LaGrange County, Indiana.
  5. 5
    A number of places in the United States:; A township in Washtenaw County, Michigan.
Show 12 more definitions
  1. 6
    A number of places in the United States:; A township in Cass County, Minnesota.
  2. 7
    A number of places in the United States:; A town in Beaverhead County, Montana.
  3. 8
    A number of places in the United States:; A town and village therein, in Livingston County, New York.
  4. 9
    A number of places in the United States:; A city, the county seat of Allen County, Ohio.
  5. 10
    A number of places in the United States:; A former township in Licking County, Ohio, merged into Pataskala in 1996.
  6. 11
    A number of places in the United States:; A town in Seminole County, Oklahoma.
  7. 12
    A number of places in the United States:; A census-designated place in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
  8. 13
    A number of places in the United States:; A town in Grant County, Wisconsin.
  9. 14
    A number of places in the United States:; A town and unincorporated community in Pepin County, Wisconsin.
  10. 15
    A number of places in the United States:; A town in Rock County, Wisconsin.
  11. 16
    A number of places in the United States:; A town in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
  12. 17
    A locality in the Rural City of Benalla, north eastern Victoria, Australia.

Synonyms

All synonyms
capital of perulove

Example

More examples

"Green is the color of lima beans."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Ellipsis of lima bean.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish Lima, in turn, borrowed from Classical Quechua Limaq (“the one who speaks”), cognate with modern Quechua rimaq, from the name of a sanctuary identified as the Huaca de Santa Ana. The variation of /r/ > /l/ is product of the former "coastal" variety of Quechua spoken around modern-day Lima. The drop of final /q/ could be attributed either to another characteristic of Coastal Quechua or to Spanish adaptation. Ultimately derived from rimay (“to speak”).

Related phrases

allen countycounty seaticao spelling alphabetlima beanlima woodsouth america

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