Ma

Ma

Noun · /mɑː/

Definition

(Informal) mother. Used as a form of address or reference, typically by children and in informal speech. Particularly common in American English and in regional British dialects.

Origin

Ma is a reduction of mama, from the infant-directed reduplicated syllable mah-mah, which is found across many of the world's languages as a first word for mother. The same repeated bilabial nasal sound appears in mama, mamma, mum, mummy, mom, madre, mère, Mutter, and mother itself. The sound is one of the earliest a human infant produces, making it a near-universal root for the word for mother.