Maura
name ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A female given name from Irish or Scottish Gaelic, of English, Scottish and Irish usage, variant of Mary.
"Fentanyl represents the latest wave of a rolling drug epidemic that has been fueled by prescription painkillers, as addicts continue to seek higher highs and cheaper fixes. “It started out as an opioid epidemic, then heroin, but now it’s a fentanyl epidemic,” Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts, said in an interview."
- 2 A surname.
- 3 A female given name from Italian, masculine equivalent Mauro.
Example
More examples"The recent outbreak of monkeypox in the American mid-west, and its connection to prairie dogs that were kept as pets, has focused attention on so-called "exotic pet ownership." Here in America, it's not at all unusual for people to keep domesticated animals like dogs, or cats, or horses as pets. But prairie dogs are wild animals, and because of that, some people believe they shouldn't be owned. But as VOA's Maura Farrelly found out, dogs aren't the only wild animals being brought into American homes."
Etymology
Either Irish Máire and Scottish Gaelic Màiri, or from Italian Maura. When borrowed from Irish, a doublet of Moira.
Borrowed from Catalan, French, and Italian Maura.
Related phrases
More for "maura"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.