mara
/ˈmɑːɹə/
mara noun: a nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.
Noun (1)
mara (plural maras)
- A nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.
- The corpus of related texts tells us that within rural society it was not improbable for your neighbour's envy of your fine cattle to take the form of a mara.1996, Catharina Raudvere, “Now you see her, now you don't: some notes on the conception of female shape-shifters in Scandinavian traditions”, in Sandra Billington, Miranda Green, editors, The Concept...
Noun (2)
mara (plural maras)
- A type of god that prevents accomplishment or success.
- Mara means demon, or demonic influence, that hinders the practice of virtue. It may be an external spirit or an aspect of our own imperfect condition. All hindrances on the path to liberation are subsumed under the four maras. The first mara is the mara of the aggregates.[…]The second of the maras...2011, Graham Woodhouse, Lobsang Gyatso, Tsongkhapa's Praise for Dependent Relativity, Wisdom Publications, page 20
- Any malicious or evil spirit.
- The mara is the spirit that causes illness, accidents, and mishaps. The only protection against it is another mara who befriends a person or a group. A mara who becomes friendly is called a gunik. This transformation occurs when a mara comes to a person in a dream and states a desire to be...2002, Sarvananda Bluestone, The World Dream Book, page 73
Noun (3)
mara (plural maras)
- Any caviid rodent of the genus Dolichotis, common in the Patagonian steppes of Argentina.
- Maras have a white patch of fur on the rump that they flash when running, an adaptation they share with several species of deer and antelopes.1999, Michael A. Mares, editor, Encyclopedia of Deserts, Mara, page 349
- Although only Dolichotis, the Patagonian mara, is strongly cursorial, all caviids have certain features typical of cursorial mammals[…].2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, 5th edition, page 228
Noun (4)
mara (plural maras)
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Mara
Mara
- A Maran Australian Aboriginal prefixing language spoken in southeastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Mara
Mara
- A female given name from Hebrew.
- Call me not Naomi, call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 1:20
Proper noun (3) capitalized: Mara
Mara
- A surname from Irish.
Proper noun (4) capitalized: Mara
Mara
- The Hindu god of death; opposite of Kama.
- The Buddhist demon who tempts people away from enlightenment
Proper noun (5) capitalized: Mara
Mara
Noun (5) capitalized: Mara
Mara (plural Maras)
- A member of a predominantly agricultural tribe of southern Assam and western Burma.
- Synonyms:
- Lakher
Proper noun (6) capitalized: Mara
the Mara
mara meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada
mara in Tamil
- மகளிரான்மலர்மரம்
mara in Telugu
- మారా
mara in Kannada
- ಮಾರಾ, ಮರಾ
More languagesFewer languages
- mara in Odia
- ମାରା
- mara in Sinhala
- මාරයා mārayā
- mara in Nepali
- मारा
- mara in Thai
- มาร maan
- mara in Vietnamese
- Thiên Ma
- mara in Myanmar
- မာရ်နတ် marnat, မာရ် mar
Examples of mara in a sentence
- Mara means demon, or demonic influence, that hinders the practice of virtue.2011, Graham Woodhouse, Lobsang Gyatso, Tsongkhapa's Praise for Dependent Relativity, Wisdom Publications, page 20:
- The mara is the spirit that causes illness, accidents, and mishaps.2002, Sarvananda Bluestone, The World Dream Book, page 73:
- Maras (Dolichotis patagonum) are cursorial and prefer open areas with low vegetation for breeding and more barren sites for construction of communal dens (Taber and Macdonald 1992; Baldi 2007).2013, R. L. Honeycutt, “Chapter 3: Phylogenetics of Caviomorph Rodents and Genetic Perspectives on the Evolution of Sociality and Mating...
Synonyms of mara
Forms of mara
| plural | maras |
|---|---|
| plural | Maras |
Origin of mara
Borrowed from Old Norse mara, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ, cognate with Old English mare or mære. Doublet of mare. See nightmare.
Borrowed from Sanskrit मार (māra).
From New World Spanish mara.
Words formed from mara
- Patagonian mara
- Chacoan mara
- Maran
Phrases with mara
Words that rhyme with mara
Questions about mara
- What does mara mean?
- Mara means a nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.
- What is mara in Tamil?
- Mara in Tamil is மகளிரான்மலர்மரம். See Mara meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use mara in a sentence?
- Mara means demon, or demonic influence, that hinders the practice of virtue.
- What part of speech is mara?
- Mara can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce mara?
- Mara is pronounced /ˈmɑːɹə/.
- What is the plural of mara?
- The plural of mara is maras.
Words near mara in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mara (page history and authors); Mara (page history and authors); mara (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mara (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mara (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mara (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mara (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mara (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mara.wav.
Cite this entry: “mara.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mara. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.