Mamma
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The milk-secreting organ of female humans and other mammals which includes the mammary gland and the nipple or teat; a breast; an udder.
"Either sex under special stimulations is capable of manifesting powers ordinarily shown only by the other […] Thus, to take an extreme case, the mammæ of men will, under special excitation, yield milk: there are various cases of gynecomasty on record, and in famines infants whose mothers have died have been thus saved."
- 2 Alternative spelling of mama: mother. alt-of, alternative
"1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling The next day Charles had the child brought back. She asked for her mamma. They told her she was away; that she would bring her back some playthings."
- 3 milk-secreting organ of female mammals wordnet
- 4 An accessory cloud like a mammary in appearance, which can form on the underside of most cloud genera.
- 5 informal terms for a mother wordnet
Example
More examples"As she was going through the wood, she met Gaffer Wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up; but he dared not, because of some fagot-makers hard by in the forest. He asked her whither she was going. The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay and hear a wolf talk, said to him:— "I am going to see my grandmother, and carry her a custard and a little pot of butter from my mamma."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin mamma.
Alternative spelling of mama; see further etymology there.
Related phrases
More for "mamma"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.