Maya

//ˈmaɪə// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The Yucatec Maya language.
  2. 2
    A female given name from Hebrew of modern usage.

    "When her little friends asked her what her name was, her father replied that it was Conchita - his diminutive for Maria de la Concepción. "Con-what?" they would ask again, aware, apparently, that con in French is a fool, an idiot. So her parents started calling her Maria, which from the little girl's lips soon began to sound like Maya. "Maya!" exclaimed her father. "It's perfect. It means the greatest illusion on earth." So Maya it was from then on - Maya Walter."

  3. 3
    In Sanskrit, illusion and the power that creates it; God's physical and metaphysical creation (literally, "not this").
  4. 4
    The mother of Gautama Buddha.
  5. 5
    Any of the other various Mayan languages.; Quiché.
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  1. 6
    A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.

    "Eventually, Pran and Savita decided by correspondence on Maya. Its two simple syllables meant, among other things: the goddess Lakshmi, illusion, fascination, art, the goddess Durga, kindness, and the name of the mother of Buddha. It also meant: ignorance, delusion, fraud, guile, and hypocrisy; but no one who named their daughter Maya ever paid any attention to those pejorative possibilities. - - - 'Why ever not, Ma?' said Meenakshi.'It's a very Bengali name, a very nice name.'"

  2. 7
    Any of the other various Mayan languages.; Mam.
  3. 8
    Any of the other various Mayan languages.; Tzotzil.
Noun
  1. 1
    A member or descendant of various peoples:; a flourishing Mesoamerican civilization that existed in and around Guatemala from the 3rd century to the 9th century.
  2. 2
    Magic; supernatural power as held by the gods. uncountable
  3. 3
    a family of American Indian languages spoken by Mayas wordnet
  4. 4
    A member or descendant of various peoples:; various Mesoamerican peoples that continued in competing civilizations from the 10th century onward until conquered by Spain
  5. 5
    The power by which the universe is made to appear; the illusion of the phenomenal world, as opposed to its true or spiritual reality. Hinduism, uncountable

    "Shankara prescribed meditative reflection, through which each individual could pierce the veil of maya and come to recognize the identity between his or her essence and the universal spirit."

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  1. 6
    an ethnic minority speaking Mayan languages and living in Yucatan and adjacent areas wordnet
  2. 7
    A member or descendant of various peoples:; various Mesoamerican peoples living in the Spanish Empire, and now parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras
  3. 8
    a member of an American Indian people of Yucatan and Belize and Guatemala who had a culture (which reached its peak between AD 300 and 900) characterized by outstanding architecture and pottery and astronomy wordnet
  4. 9
    A member or descendant of various peoples:; a variety of Mesoamerican peoples with farming from around 1000 BC onward, who developed a large civilization from the 3rd century onward

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Spanish maya, from Yucatec Maya mayab (“flat”), a self-designation of the northern Maya for themselves, in the form maya’ found in compounds and phrases e.g. maya’ wíinik (“Maya man”).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish maya, from Yucatec Maya mayab (“flat”), a self-designation of the northern Maya for themselves, in the form maya’ found in compounds and phrases e.g. maya’ wíinik (“Maya man”).

Etymology 3

From Maria, ultimately from Hebrew, and from Maia, from Latin.

Etymology 4

Transliteration of Sanskrit माया (māyā).

Etymology 5

Transliteration of Sanskrit माया (māyā́) or Pali Māyā.

Etymology 6

From Sanskrit माया (māyā).

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