Word.ws English Dictionary

ama

/ˈɑː.mə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Singapore English/ˈɑː.mɑ/

ama is the alternative spelling of amah.

ama is the alternative form of AMA.

Noun (5)

ama (plural amas)

  1. (Philippines, colloquial, Chinese Filipino) paternal grandmother; paternal grandma
    • "Perhaps," her grandmother had said. She was nearing death at that point, Mia's ama. Her body was wracked with arthritis, rheumatism, Parkinson's, osteoporosis and more. The maids said she was crazy with pain, and perhaps too far gone to even think properly.2012, Andrew Drilon, “Two Women Worth Watching”, in Charles Tan, editor, Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology, Maple Shade, New Jersey: Lethe Press, Inc., page 8
  2. (Philippines, colloquial, Chinese Filipino) term of address for one's paternal grandmother
    • There would always be some food offerrings there, and every morning, Amma would burn some incense. More elaborate offerings were made on the anniversaries of his birth and death, and the Chinese festivals for the dead such as Qingming in April and the Hungry Ghosts on the seventh lunar month.2017, Ari C. Dy, “Introduction”, in Chinese Buddhism in Catholic Philippines: Syncretism as Identity, Anvil Publishing, Inc.

Meaning of amah

Noun

amah (plural amahs)

  1. (India) A woman employed to look after children; (formerly) a wet nurse.
  2. (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore) A female domestic helper; a maid.
    • Then one day he disappeared and when Luke called apprehensively at his apartment the old amah told him that ‘Whisky Papa runrun London fastee.’1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 20

Noun (1)

ama (plural amas)

  1. A traditional Japanese pearl diver, usually female, who mainly dives for seafood, typically without any tool for breathing.

Noun (2)

ama (plural amas)

  1. The float on the outrigger of a proa or trimaran.

Noun (3)

ama (countable and uncountable, plural amas)

  1. A toxic byproduct of improper or incomplete digestion.

Noun (4)

ama (plural amas)

  1. Fabric made from the hair of a camel or goat.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: AMA

AMA

  1. (US, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of American Medical Association.
    • “While there is still time, we urge Florida to reconsider this change to help prevent a rise of infectious disease outbreaks that put health and lives at risk,” said Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an AMA trustee.2025 September 3, Curt Anderson, “Florida plans to become first state to eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates”, in AP News, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2025
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Alberta Motor Association.
  3. (Australia, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Australian Medical Association.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of American Motorcyclist Association.

Phrase capitalized: AMA

AMA

  1. (Internet, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of ask me anything: usually attached to the end of a prompt in an “ask me anything” interview session.

Noun (6) capitalized: AMA

AMA (plural AMAs)

  1. (Internet, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of ask me anything.
    • We did this after the company abruptly terminated Victoria Taylor, a Reddit employee who worked extensively with us as well as with other moderator teams on facilitating A.M.A.s. […] When the company removed her without warning or providing alternative resources, it effectively hindered every...2015 July 8, Brian Lynch, Courtnie Swearingen, “Why We Shut Down Reddit’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ Forum”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 02 Jul 2020
    • While Obama’s AMA ended up being a bit bland, the experiences and knowledge shared by the vacuum repair man made it one of the most popular and memorable AMAs ever hosted.2016 October 10, Will Cenci, “Why scientists should learn to love Reddit”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2017

Prepositional phrase capitalized: AMA

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of against medical advice.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Ama

Ama

  1. A language of Papua New Guinea.
  2. A Nilo-Saharan language of Sudan.
  3. A female given name.

Forms of ama

Noun
pluralamas
alternative formamah
alternative formahma
alternative formamma
pluralAMAs
Proper noun
alternative formA.M.A.
alternative formA. M. A.

Origin of ama

From Portuguese ama (“female nurse”), from Medieval Latin amma (“wet nurse, amma”), perhaps an alteration of mamma, of imitative origin, or from Ancient Greek.

From Japanese あま.

From Polynesian.

Phrases with ama

Questions about ama

What does ama mean?
Ama means a traditional Japanese pearl diver, usually female, who mainly dives for seafood, typically without any tool for breathing.
What is ama the alternative spelling of?
Ama is the alternative spelling of amah.
What part of speech is ama?
Ama can be a noun, a proper noun, a phrase or a prepositional phrase.
How do you pronounce ama?
Ama is pronounced /ˈɑː.mə/ (UK).
What is the plural of ama?
The plural of ama is amas.

Words near ama in the dictionary

  1. AM-GM Inequality
  2. am-meter
  3. am-meters
  4. Am.
  5. Am. Sam.
  6. ama
  7. amaas
  8. AMAB
  9. Amabel
  10. amaBhaca
  11. amabilis fir

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ama (page history and authors); AMA (page history and authors); Ama (page history and authors); amah (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ama.wav, En-au-AMA.ogg.

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