Word.ws English Dictionary

cia

/ˌsiːˌaɪˈeɪ/

cia is the obsolete form of cha.

Meaning of cha

Noun (1)

cha (uncountable)

  1. Tea, (sometimes dialect) specifically masala chai.
    • Would you like a cup of cha?

Noun (2)

cha (plural chas or cha)

  1. (Korean units of measure) Synonym of Korean foot: a traditional unit of length equivalent to about 30.3 cm.
    Synonyms:
    Korean foot

See all 5 meanings of cha

Proper noun capitalized: CIA

CIA

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Central Intelligence Agency.
    • In 2009, the Obama Administration released guidelines on enhanced interrogation written in 2003 and 2004 by the CIA Office of Medical Services. ^((OMS).1-3(appendix F)) The OMS guidelines, even in redacted form, and opinions from the US Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) Office of Legal Counsel show...2010 August 4, Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD; Stephen N. Xenakis, MD, “The Ethics of Enhanced Interrogations and Torture: A Reappraisal of the Argument”, in JAMA, volume 304, number 5, American Medical...
    • During the hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2011, CIA operatives in Pakistan posed as aid workers and even faked an immunization campaign. To many of my Muslim friends, this CIA spycraft is no different from what covert Christian missionaries do.2016 August 17, Jeremy Courtney, “Three arguments against covert Christian ‘spycraft’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2017
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Cleveland Institute of Art.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Culinary Institute of America.
  4. (Philippines, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Clark International Airport.

Noun capitalized: CIA

CIA (plural CIAs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Circuit Interactive Analyzer.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Concept Illustration and Animation.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Cultural Impact Assessment.

Adjective capitalized: CIA

CIA (not comparable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of captured-in-action.

Forms of cia

Proper noun
alternative formC.I.A.
Noun
pluralCIAs

Origin of cia

From Chinese 茶 (chá) via Italian.

Words formed from cia

Questions about cia

What is cia the obsolete form of?
Cia is the obsolete form of cha.
What part of speech is cia?
Cia can be a proper noun, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce cia?
Cia is pronounced /ˌsiːˌaɪˈeɪ/.

Words near cia in the dictionary

  1. ci
  2. cI protein
  3. cI proteins
  4. ci-devant
  5. CI/CD
  6. cia
  7. Cia-Cia
  8. CIAAW
  9. ciabatta
  10. ciabatta bread
  11. ciabatta breads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cia (page history and authors); CIA (page history and authors); cha (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)-Persent101-CIA.wav.

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