Word.ws English Dictionary

-ma-

-ma- infix: adds ironic pseudo-sophistication to an existing word.

Infix

-ma-

  1. (humorous) Adds ironic pseudo-sophistication to an existing word.
    • education + -ma- → edumacation
    • alcohol + -ma- → alcamahol

Interfix

-ma-

  1. a shortened allomorph of the monoclonal antibody affix -mar-, used before the affixes -xi- and -zu- for ease of pronunciation

Origin of -ma-

Probably modeled on existing playful terms where -ma- is the third syllable like thingamabob, thingamajig, rigamarole, razzamatazz, whatchamacallit.

Questions about -ma-

What does -ma- mean?
-ma- means adds ironic pseudo-sophistication to an existing word.
What part of speech is -ma-?
-ma- can be an infix or an interfix.

Words near -ma- in the dictionary

  1. -lynn
  2. -lynne
  3. -lysis
  4. -lyte
  5. -lytic
  6. -ma-
  7. -mab
  8. -machy
  9. -mageddon
  10. -man
  11. -mance

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -ma- (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “-ma-.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-ma-. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.