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APG.American
Pronunciation Guide
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

maya

/maɪ.ə/

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What does maya mean?

noun

  1. Magic; supernatural power as held by the gods.
  2. The power by which the universe is made to appear; the illusion of the phenomenal world, as opposed to its true or spiritual reality.
  3. a flourishing Mesoamerican civilization that existed in and around Guatemala from the 3rd century to the 9th century.
More meanings (14)

noun

  1. various Mesoamerican peoples that continued in competing civilizations from the 10th century onward until conquered by Spain
  2. various Mesoamerican peoples living in the Spanish Empire, and now parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras
  3. a variety of Mesoamerican peoples with farming from around 1000 BC onward, who developed a large civilization from the 3rd century onward

proper noun

  1. The Yucatec Maya language.
  2. Quiché.
  3. Mam.
  4. Tzotzil.
  5. A female given name
  6. A female given name from Hebrew, of modern usage, variant of Maria, equivalent to English Mary
  7. A female given name from Latin, variant of Maia, equivalent to English May
  8. A female given name from Greek
  9. In Sanskrit, illusion and the power that creates it; God's physical and metaphysical creation (literally, "not this").
  10. A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.
  11. The mother of Gautama Buddha.
Wiktionary contributors Wiktionary contributors

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/maɪ.ə/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

The following table shows the Mexican and Maya days, the meaning of each, and the pictorial sign by which they were represented.
Emory Adams AllenThe Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesProject Gutenberg ebook #2873
The letter n of the Maya alphabet is represented by this sign, itself probably a simplification of some more ornate form, ### .
Ignatius DonnellyAtlantis: The Antedeluvian WorldProject Gutenberg ebook #4032
More book examples (3)
The mother of Gotama Buddha was called Mai or Maya, after the month in which the Earth is arrayed in her most beautiful attire.
Eliza Burt GambleThe God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in ReligionProject Gutenberg ebook #639
What the Aztec and Maya were striving towards in the sixteenth century A.D., various Oriental nations had attained at least five or six thousand years earlier.
Henry Smith Williams; Edward Huntington WilliamsA History of Science — Volume 1Project Gutenberg ebook #1705
Thus, we have in Maya, mehen "son," ix-mehen "daughter,"-- -ix is a feminine prefix; and in the Jívaro, of Ecuador, vila "son," vilalu, "daughter."
Alexander Francis ChamberlainThe Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayProject Gutenberg ebook #7966