mara

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːɹə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːɹə

Borrowed from Old Norse mara, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ, cognate with Old English mare or mære. Doublet of mare. See nightmare.

mara (plural maras)

1. (European folklore) A nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.
   • 1996, Catharina Raudvere, “Now you see her, now you don't: some notes on the conception of female shape-shifters in Scandinavian traditions”, in Sandra Billington, Miranda Green, editors, The Concept of the Goddess, pages 41–55:

     The corpus of related texts tells us that within rural society it was not improbable for your neighbour's envy of your fine cattle to take the form of a mara.

• Mare (folklore) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Sanskrit मार (māra).

mara (plural maras)

1. (Buddhism) A type of god that prevents accomplishment or success.
   • 2011, Graham Woodhouse, Lobsang Gyatso, Tsongkhapa's Praise for Dependent Relativity‎^[1], Wisdom Publications, page 20:

     Mara means demon, or demonic influence, that hinders the practice of virtue. It may be an external spirit or an aspect of our own imperfect condition. All hindrances on the path to liberation are subsumed under the four maras. The first mara is the mara of the aggregates. […] The second of the maras is the mara of the afflictions, which are the same as the afflictive obstructions. They are identified as a mara because they precipitate all harmful actions, from malicious gossip to murder. […] The third mara is Devaputra, literally "son of a god," an external troublemaker who specializes in interfering with beings who are endeavoring to achieve something positive. […] The last mara is the mara of death.

2. (Buddhism) Any malicious or evil spirit.
   • 2002, Sarvananda Bluestone, The World Dream Book, page 73:

     The mara is the spirit that causes illness, accidents, and mishaps. The only protection against it is another mara who befriends a person or a group. A mara who becomes friendly is called a gunik. This transformation occurs when a mara comes to a person in a dream and states a desire to be friendly. But there are deceitful maras who pretend to be friendly, yet will betray the person who trusts them.

• Mara

• Mara (demon) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From New World Spanish mara.

mara (plural maras)

1. Any caviid rodent of the genus Dolichotis, common in the Patagonian steppes of Argentina.
   • 1999, Michael A. Mares, editor, Encyclopedia of Deserts‎^[2], Mara, page 349:

     Maras have a white patch of fur on the rump that they flash when running, an adaptation they share with several species of deer and antelopes.

   • 2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, 5th edition, page 228:

     Although only Dolichotis, the Patagonian mara, is strongly cursorial, all caviids have certain features typical of cursorial mammals […] .

   • 2013, R. L. Honeycutt, “Chapter 3: Phylogenetics of Caviomorph Rodents and Genetic Perspectives on the Evolution of Sociality and Mating Systems in the Caviidae”, in José Roberto Moreira, Katia Maria P.M.B. Ferraz, Emilio A. Herrera, David W. Macdonald, editors, Capybara: Biology, Use and Conservation of an Exceptional Neotropical Species‎^[3], page 70:

     Maras (Dolichotis patagonum) are cursorial and prefer open areas with low vegetation for breeding and more barren sites for construction of communal dens (Taber and Macdonald 1992; Baldi 2007).

• Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum)
• Chacoan mara (Dolichotis salinicola)

• mara (mammal) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Dolichotis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Dolichotis on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

mara (plural maras)

1. (US) A Latin American criminal gang.

• mara d'atra
• terra-mara

• Rāma, Rama, ARMA, -rama, maar, amra, Aram, Amar

Possibly related to Arabic مَرْء (marʔ, “man”) and Akkadian 𒌉 (mārum, “son”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmara/ [ˈmʌɾʌ]
• Hyphenation: ma‧ra

mára m (singulative núm m)

1. (collective) people
   • Saytun Qhuraan kee kay maqnah tarjamaty Qafar afal tani [The clear Qur'an and its explanation translated into the Afar language]‎^[4], Suurat Al-Faatica, verse 3:

     Ummaan ginoh Fulte Racmatta leeh, yeemene marah Gunê Racmatta-le Rabbi kinni.

     He [who] surpasses the mercy of every creation, he is the God who gives mercy to the believing people.

2. (collective) nation

Declension of mára
absolutive	mára
predicative	mára
subjective	marí
genitive	marín
Postpositioned forms l-case máral k-case márak t-case márat h-case márah

• marí

• maré (“live; family”)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /maˈra/ [mʌˈɾʌ]
• Hyphenation: ma‧ra

mara

1. first/third-person masculine singular affirmative imperfective of maré

• E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), “màra”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle; Mohamed Hassan Kamil (August 2013), “Gender, Number and Agreement in Afar (Cushitic language)”, in 43rd Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics‎^[5], Leiden: Leiden University

mara

1. be ashamed

• Kateřina Naitoro, A Sketch Grammar of 'Are'are: The Sound System and Morpho-Syntax (2013)

From Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

mara

1. hand

• IPA^(key): /marə/
• Hyphenation: ma‧ra

Unknown.

mara (Balinese script ᬫᬭ)

1. new, recent

   Synonym: bau

From Sanskrit मार (māra, “death, killing, obstacle, hindrance”).

mara (Balinese script ᬫᬵᬭ)

1. danger

• “mara”, in Balinese–Indonesian Dictionary [Kamus Bahasa Bali–Indonesia] (in Balinese), Denpasar, Indonesia: The Linguistic Center of Bali Province [Balai Bahasa Provinsi Bali].

mara (tone màra)

1. guard
2. region, province
3. (administrative division) circle
4. savings, reserves
5. kingdom

mara

1. (transitive) to guard, keep, take care of
2. to manage, govern
3. to keep, raise (poultry)

Inherited from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maja. Compare Maranao mara, Yogad maga, Cebuano maa and Tetum maran.

• IPA^(key): /maˈɾa/ [maˈɾa]
• Hyphenation: ma‧ra

mará (plural marara, Basahan spelling ᜋᜍ)

1. (Partido, Tabaco–Legazpi–Sorsogon) dry; arid

   Synonym: alang

   Antonyms: basa, dumog

From Arabic اِمْرَأَة (imraʔa).

mara f (construct state mprat, plural nisfán)

1. woman
2. wife

• Borg, Alexander (2004), A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic–English) (Handbook of Oriental Studies; I.70), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 426

From Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

mara

1. hand

From maro +‎ -a.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmara/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ara
• Syllabification: ma‧ra
• Hyphenation: mar‧a

mara (accusative singular maran, plural maraj, accusative plural marajn)

1. sea (attributively) (of or relating to the sea)

From Proto-Oceanic *mara (“to spoil, to go foul (of food)”).

mara

1. stench of a corpse
2. resting place of a deceased chief

• madra

• Gatty, Ronald (2009), “mara”, in Fijian-English Dictionary, Suva, Fiji: Ronald Gatty, →ISBN, page 157
• Ross, Malcolm D.; Pawley, Andrew; Osmond, Meredith (1998), The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic, volume 1: Material Culture, Canberra: Australian National University, →ISBN, pages 158-9

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑrɑ/, [ˈmɑ̝rɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -ɑrɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ma‧ra
• Hyphenation^(key): ma‧ra

Borrowed into Western Finnish dialects from Swedish mara, which is a demon that sits on the chest of a sleeping person and causes bad dreams. This demon is known by similar names among Germanic peoples and lives in English nightmare, in Swedish mardröm (“nightmare”) and in German Nachtmahr (“nightmare”), among others.

mara

1. (folklore) nightmare, mara (demon that causes bad dreams)

   Synonym: painajainen

From Spanish mará.

mara

1. mara (hare-like South American rodent of the genus Dolichotis)

• maar

• mārā, márá, murra, mŭrră

From Proto-Central New South Wales *mara, from Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

• IPA^(key): /maɻa/

mara

1. hand
2. finger

• 1856, William Ridley, “On the Kamilaroi Tribe of Australians and Their Dialect”, in Journal of the Ethnological Society of London, volume 4:

  Hand . . . mārā
  Fingers . . mŭrră.

  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• 1856, William Ridley, gurre kamilaroi, or Kamilaroi Sayings:

  immanuel murra kawāni miedul, goe, “miēdūl waria.”
  Immanuel by hand took the girl, said “damsel arise”.

  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• 1873, William Ridley, Australian Languages and Traditions, in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, volume 2:

  Hand|murra

• 1903, R. H. Mathews, Languages of the Kamilaroi and Other Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales, in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, volume 33:

  Hand .... ....|murra

• Barry Alpher (2004), “Proto-Pama-Nyungan Etyma”, in Claire Bowern, Harold Koch, editors, Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, →ISBN, section 5.1, pages 456–9
• Peter Austin (1993) A Reference Grammar of Gamilaraay, northern New South Wales (Thesis)‎^[6], Melbourne, Australia: La Trobe University, Department of Linguistics, →ISBN

From Portuguese amarrar. Cognate with Kabuverdianu mára.

mara

1. to tie

mara (weak verb, third-person singular past indicative maraði, supine marað)

1. to float under the surface

mara f (genitive singular möru, nominative plural mörur)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

• “mara” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)

• IPA^(key): [ˈma.ra]
• Hyphenation: ma‧ra

Inherited from Malay مارا (mara), from Sanskrit मार (māra, “slaughter, destruction”).

mara (plural mara-mara)

1. calamity, danger

   Synonyms: bahala, bahaya, bala, bencana, cobaan, dakiat, keapesan, kecelakaan, kegagalan, kemaharan, kemalangan, kemudaratan, kerugian, kesialan, malapetaka, mara

• bahaya
• bencana
• malapetaka

Borrowed from Javanese ꦩꦫ (mara, “to come, to approach”).

mara

1. to go
2. to advance, to move forward.
3. to approach.

From Sanskrit कोट (koṭa, “fort, shed, hut”) +‎ मार (māra, “killing, destroying”).

mara (plural mara-mara)

1. synonym of kotamara (“a kind of naval defensive structure”)
2. synonym of sangga mara

Borrowed from Coastal Konjo [Term?] or Highland Konjo [Term?].

mara (plural mara-mara)

1. (zoology) Limacodidae

Unknown

mara (plural mara-mara)

1. (botany) parasol leaf tree, blush macaranga, nasturtium tree, David's heart, heart leaf (Macaranga tanarius)

• “mara”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

• IPA^(key): [ˈmˠaɾˠə]

mara f

1. inflection of muir (“sea”):
   1. genitive singular
   2. plural

mara

1. Cois Fharraige form of mura (“if... not, unless”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “mara”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “mara”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “mara”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026

mara

1. Rōmaji transcription of まら

mara

1. romanization of ꦩꦫ

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɾa/, [ˈma.ɾa]

From Sudanese Arabic مرة (mara), from Arabic مَرْأَة (marʔa).

mara (plural niswaan)

1. woman
2. wife

From Arabic مَرَّة (marra).

mara (plural maraat)

1. time (instance or occurrence)

   Mara wahid ― Once (literally, “One time”)

• Ian Smith; Morris Timothy Ama (1985), A Dictionary of Juba Arabic & English‎^[7], 1st edition, Juba: The Committee of The Juba Cheshire Home and Centre for Handicapped Children, page 156

From Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

mara

1. hand

• marawardli (“palm”)
• marawaka (“cupped hands”)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈma.ra]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmaː.ra]

mara

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of marum

mara

1. Latin spelling of მარა (mara)

Inherited from Proto-South Sulawesi *ma(zr)a, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *maja (“dry up, evaporate”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈmara/, [ˈma.ra]
• Hyphenation: ma‧ra

mara (Lontara spelling ᨆᨑ)

1. precategorial root expressing dry or lacking moisture

• A. A. Cense (2024), Makassaars-Nederlands woordenboek‎^[8], Brill, →DOI

From Arabic اِمْرَأة (imraʔa, “woman; wife”). Formally, a backformation from the latter’s definite form اَلْمَرْأة (al-marʔa) as in most modern Arabic dialects.

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.ra/
• Rhymes: -ara

mara f (construct state mart or (archaic) mrat, plural nisa, masculine raġel or żewġ)

1. woman
   • 2023, Keith Borg, magħġuna fit-tbenġil, Ede Books, →ISBN:

     kull skuża
     f’soċjetà kkankrata
     li ma tridx taf b’mara
     sakemm m’hemmx kwota
     li ma tridx taf b’mara
     sakemm ma tridx tivvota

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. wife
   • 1966, Anton Buttigieg, “Agnes”, in Ejjew Nidħku Ftit Ieħor:

     Miexja fil-funeral ta’ kuġintha
     mart it-tabib, li mietet fl-aħjar tagħha;
     u f’moħħha ħsieb għaddej li t-tabib jista’
     kif jgħaddi ftit taż-żmien, jitgħarras magħha.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. female (of an animal)

From Proto-Polynesian *mala, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *malaŋ.

mara

1. (stative) be unhappy, dispirited

• A Dictionary of Mangareva

From Proto-Oceanic *mara (“to spoil, to go foul [of food]” – compare with Tongan mā “breadfruit preserve, Western bread”, Samoan mala “soft [of food]”, Fijian mara “stench of a corpse”, Satawalese mar “breadfruit preserve”).^[1][2]

mara

1. (of food) preserved esp. by prolonged steeping under running water until softened

• Williams, Herbert William (1917), “mara”, in A Dictionary of the Maori Language, page 210
• “mara” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.

mara (Raguileo spelling)

1. rabbit
2. hare

• Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

Akin to Tetum maran.

mara

1. dry

From Proto-Ngayarda *mara, from Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

• IPA^(key): /maɻa/

mara

1. hand

• Barry Alpher (2004), “Proto-Pama-Nyungan Etyma”, in Claire Bowern, Harold Koch, editors, Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, →ISBN, section 5.1, pages 456–9
• Dench, Alan Charles. 1995. Martuthunira: A Language of the Pilbara Region of Western Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Series C-125.

From Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

mara

1. hand

• Westerlund, T. (2007). A grammatical sketch of Ngarla: A language of Western Australia. Uppsala University.

From Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

mara

1. hand

• maren m

mara f

1. definite singular of mare

mara f (definite singular mara, indefinite plural marer or maror, definite plural marene or marone)

1. (pre-2012) alternative form of mare
2. definite singular of mare

mara (present tense marar, past tense mara, past participle mara, passive infinitive marast, present participle marande, imperative mara/mar)

1. alternative form of mare

• amar, arma

• marra
• maar (eastern dialect)

From Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

mara

1. (northern dialect) hand

From Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːrɑ/
• Rhymes: -āra

māra

1. comparative degree of miċel: more
2. greater
   • c. 992, Ælfric, "Midlent Sunday"

     Māre wundor is þæt God Ælmihtig ǣlce dæġ fēt ealne middangeard,...

     A greater miracle it is that God Almighty every day feeds all the world,...

• Middle English: more, mare, moore
  • English: more

    Geordie: mair

  • Scots: mair
  • Yola: more, mo'

From Proto-Germanic *marǭ.

mara f (genitive mǫru)

1. nightmare, incubus

• Danish: mare c
• Icelandic: mara f
• Norwegian Nynorsk: mare f
• Norwegian Bokmål: mare m or f
• Swedish: mara c

Probably related to marr m (“sea”).

mara

1. to be waterlogged, float low in the water

   marði þá undir þeim skipit

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mara

1. genitive plural of marr
2. genitive plural of marr

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), “mara”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive

mara

1. second-person singular imperative active of marati (“to die”)

From Proto-Ngayarda *mara, from Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

• IPA^(key): /maɻa/

mara

1. hand

• Barry Alpher (2004), “Proto-Pama-Nyungan Etyma”, in Claire Bowern, Harold Koch, editors, Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, →ISBN, section 5.1, pages 456–9
• Dench, Alan. 1991. ‘Panyjima’. R.M.W. Dixon, Barry J. Blake (eds.) The Handbook of Australian Languages, Volume 4. Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia, 125–244.

From Portuguese amarrar and Spanish amarrar and Kabuverdianu mára.

The Portuguese word comes from Dutch aanmeren.

mara

1. to tie

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.ra/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ara
• Syllabification: ma‧ra

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mara. Compare English mare, German Mahr.

mara f

1. (literary) A dream, nightmare.
2. (Slavic mythology) A creature believed to drain sleeping people of their blood or energy; wight, mare.

• → Belarusian: ма́ра (mára)

• zmora

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mara

1. third-person singular present of marać

• mara in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• mara in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Wanda Decyk-Zięba, editor (2018-2022), “mara”, in Dydaktyczny Słownik Etymologiczno-historyczny Języka Polskiego [A Didactic, Historical, Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish), →ISBN

• Homophone: Mara

mara (invariable)

1. (Brazil, slang) clipping of maravilhoso
   • Carmen Pimentel (quoting “Siba”), Comunidades virtuais, comunidades linguísticas in 2015, Idioma, n. 29, page 192:

     Hum 700 g a menos tá mara!

     Some 700 fewer grams would be great!

   • 2018, Valentina Schulz, O Diário da Valen: Confissões de um ano inesquecível, Editora Alto Astral, page 61:

     O importante é que a pizza estava mara e conseguimos estudar e jogar um pouco de Xbox (perdi feio, só pra constar).

     The important thing is that the pizza was great and we were able to study and play some Xbox (I lost badly, just so you know).

   • 2019, Wagner Fontoura, O Cozinheiro de Bangu, Nau Editora, page 144:

     Arthur, o negócio aqui tá mara!

     Arthur, things are awesome here!

From Spanish mara.

mara f (plural maras)

1. mara (Central American street gang)

mara

1. inflection of marar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

From Proto-Polynesian *mala, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *malaŋ.

mara

1. to start rotting, going bad

mara

1. lump, bruise (from a blow)

• Rapanui-English Dictionary

mara f sg

1. genitive singular of muir (“sea, ocean”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɾa/ [ˈma.ɾa]
• Rhymes: -aɾa
• Syllabification: ma‧ra

Clipping of marabunta.

mara f (plural maras)

1. (El Salvador, Guatemala, colloquial) people in one's in-group, crew, gang, squad

   Cariño, hoy en la noche saldré con la mara de la empresa. ― Honey, tonight I'm going out with the crew from work.

2. (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico) criminal gang

   Synonym: pandilla

   A mediados de 2012, se acordó una tregua entre las maras salvadoreñas y el gobierno local. ― In mid-2012, a truce was orchestrated between Salvadorian gangs and the local government.

mara f (plural maras)

1. Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum)

Borrowed from Tamil மரம் (maram, “tree”) (occurring in the names of many woods).

mara f (plural maras)

1. Calophyllum calaba

mara f (plural maras)

1. obsolete form of maga (“Thespesia grandiflora”)

• “mara”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

mara (Sundanese script ᮙᮛ)

1. (botany) Macaranga tanarius (parasol leaf tree)

• Coolsma, S (1913), Soendaneesch-Hollandsch Woordenboek (in Dutch), Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff's Uitgeversmaatschappij

Borrowed from Arabic مَرَّة (marra).

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

mara class IX (plural mara class X)

1. time (used to form adverbial numbers, as in "one time" (i.e. once))

• See Appendix:Swahili numbers#Adverbial numbers.

• mara kwa mara (“from time to time, occasionally”)
• mara moja (“once; immediately, right away”)

mara

1. suddenly
   • 1973, Mohammed S. Abdulla, Duniani kuna watu, page 3:

     […] lakini mara alijikuta akisema kichinichini, "Potelea mbali, nitakwenda."

     […] but suddenly he found himself saying secretly, "To hell, I'll go."

• IPA^(key): /²mɑːra/
• Rhymes: -²ɑːra

From Old Norse mara, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ; cognate to Old English mare or mære.

mara c

1. a mythological creature blamed for giving people nightmares

• nattmara
• satmara

mara c

1. clipping of maratonlopp n (“marathon race”)

• mara in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• mara in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• mara in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• aram., arma, rama

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈmara/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈmaːra/, /ˈmara/

mara

1. nasal mutation of bara (“bread”)

mara

1. hear

• muS