Mamma Meaning
/ˈmæmə/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe milk-secreting organ of female humans and other mammals which includes the mammary gland and the nipple or teat; a breast; an udder.
nounAn accessory cloud like a mammary in appearance, which can form on the underside of most cloud genera.
Sentence Examples
Your mamma's so fat, she'd break London Bridge.
Mamma Leone’s, in New York, helped bring Italian cuisine to the American masses.
CEFR Practice Quiz
On the farm, the newborn calf stayed close to its ____ for warmth and milk.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ is a term used in many different languages to refer to a person's mother in a very loving way.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Latin mammalbor. English mamma Learned borrowing from Latin mamma.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1880, Herbert Spencer, The Study of Sociology, page 434:
"The Ideas of the Nurſe, and the Mother, are vvell framed in their Minds; and, like Pictures of them there, repreſent only thoſe Individuals. The Names they firſt give to them, are confined to theſe Individuals; and the names of Nurſe, and Mamma, the Child uſes, determine themſelves to thoſe Perſons."
— 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Of General Terms”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book III, § 7, page 191:
"This begets Scorn, hovv can one stand in avve, / Of a vain Tavvdry, Amorous Mamma."
— 1691, Tho[mas] Shadwell, “Epilogue”, in The Scowrers. A Comedy, […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC:
"I can't but say that his mamma was right, / If such an education was the true one."
— 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, stanza XLVIII, page 27:
"The exhibition of the New Society of Water-Colour Painters has grown to be quite as handsome and agreeable as that of its mamma, the old Society in Pall Mall East."
— 1844 June, Michael Angelo Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “[Critical Reviews of Books and Pictures.] May Gambols; or, Titmarsh in the Picture Galleries.”, in Miscellaneous Essays, Sketches and Reviews (The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray; XXV), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1885, →OCLC, page 256:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
On the farm, the newborn calf stayed close to its ____ for warmth and milk.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ is a term used in many different languages to refer to a person's mother in a very loving way.