name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Someone in authority, a master or leader, especially among Sotho-speakers. South-Africa

   "‘Morena,’ said the old priest, ‘don't be angry with the boy.’"

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A surname.
2. 2
   A district of Madhya Pradesh, India.

Example

More examples

"‘Morena,’ said the old priest, ‘don't be angry with the boy.’"

Etymology

Borrowed from Sotho morena, Northern Sotho morena, Tswana morena, from mo- (personal class prefix) + rena (“to be rich, to be a leader”).

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