mama

CEFRA1

/ˈmæmə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    An informal word for mother.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Synonym of mother (“a female parent”)., Synonym of mother (“an origin, a source”).

Examples

  • Her son is a mama's boy. He has to be with her all the time.

  • Mama, is it okay if I go swimming?

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • /ˈmamʌ/
  • /ˈmʌ-/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Mother, female parent.

  2. A lesbian partner.

  3. Synonym of mother (“a female parent”).

More examples

In context

  • Mama! That lady and man are holding hands, they're great friends aren't they!

  • I love the cookies which mama bakes me every week.

  • I need to talk to mama before I buy the car.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After he scraped his knee, the little boy cried for his blank to comfort him.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

The origin of the noun is uncertain; it is probably a reduplication of ma, thought to be a sound made by babies when breastfeeding. The word is possibly influenced by Middle French maman (“mother”) (modern French maman), mamme (both probably from Latin mamma (“breast; nurse; (childish) mother, mama; grandmother”), probably cognate with Ancient Greek μᾰ́μμη (mắmmē, “breast; (childish) mother, mama; (Koine) grandmother”), both possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂- (“to nurse; mama, mother”)), but this is also uncertain as all the words could have developed independently as onomatopoeias. Etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“(Caribbean) used as a term of address for a woman”) is possibly...