ayahuasca
/ˌaɪəˈwɑːskə/
ayahuasca noun: a giant vine native to South America (especially Banisteriopsis caapi), noted for its psychotropic properties.
Noun
ayahuasca (usually uncountable, plural ayahuascas)
- A giant vine native to South America (especially Banisteriopsis caapi), noted for its psychotropic properties.
- Any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from this vine.
- They make use of a narcotic drink called Ayahuasca, which produces effects similar to those of opium.1870, James Orton, The Andes and the Amazon, Or, Across the Continent of South America, page 171
- As the Amazon forest people would take ayahuasca and enter into that place of Group Mind where they would make decisions for the tribe, the psychedelic shamanic acts that McKenna was promulgating would involve the experience of ecstasy and the contemplation of wholeness.2004, Martin Torgoff, “Nouveau Psychedelia”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 414
- Synonyms:
- yage, grandmother
Synonyms of ayahuasca
Forms of ayahuasca
| plural | ayahuascas |
|---|
Origin of ayahuasca
From Spanish ayahuasca, from Quechua ayawaska, from aya (“spirit, ancestor”) + waska (“vine”). First use appears c. 1870. See cite below.
Words formed from ayahuasca
- acaciahuasca
- anahuasca
- endohuasca
- gaiahuasca
- juremahuasca
- mimohuasca
- pharmahuasca
Questions about ayahuasca
- What does ayahuasca mean?
- Ayahuasca means a giant vine native to South America (especially Banisteriopsis caapi), noted for its psychotropic properties.
- What part of speech is ayahuasca?
- Ayahuasca is a noun.
- How do you pronounce ayahuasca?
- Ayahuasca is pronounced /ˌaɪəˈwɑːskə/.
- What is the plural of ayahuasca?
- The plural of ayahuasca is ayahuascas.
Words near ayahuasca in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ayahuasca (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)-Typheuss-ayahuasca.wav.
Cite this entry: “ayahuasca.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ayahuasca. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.