Word.ws English Dictionary

maria

/ˈmɑɹ.i.ə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

usually/məˈɹiːə/

maria is the plural of mare.

Meaning of mare

Noun (1)

mare (plural mares)

  1. An adult female horse.
    • But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon...1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
    Antonyms:
    stallion, stud, gelding
  2. (Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) A foolish woman.
    • The silly mare phoned your mother, talking about applying for a mortgage, and we don't want that, do we?2007, Hester Browne, Little Lady, Big Apple

Noun (2)

mare (plural mares)

  1. (historical, obsolete) A type of evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; also, the feeling of suffocation felt during sleep, attributed to such a spirit.
  2. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, colloquial) A nightmare; a frustrating or terrible experience.
    • I'm having a complete mare today.

Noun (3)

mare (plural maria)

  1. A large, dark plain, which may have the appearance of a sea, such as those on the Moon.
  2. On Saturn's moon Titan, any of several lakes which are large expanses of what is thought to be liquid hydrocarbons.
    • Kraken Mare (a lake of liquid hydrocarbons on Titan which is slightly larger than the Caspian Sea)

See all 7 meanings of mare

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Maria

Maria

  1. A female given name from Hebrew.
    • Yet herein they come short of the monks and friars in their conceits of the word Maria; they have so tossed it and turned it, so anagrammatized and transposed it, that never were five poor letters so worried since time did put them into the alphabet.1629, Thomas Adams, Meditations upon Creed, The Works of Thomas Adams, James Nichol (1862), volume 3, page 211
    • By their dresses, their names, and the airs of quality they give themselves, I am rendered ridiculous among all my acquaintance. My wife, who is a very plain good woman, and whose name is Amey, has been new-christened, and is called Amelia; and my little daughter, a child of a year old, is no...1776, Adam Fitz-Adam: The World of Adam Fitz-Adam. Edinburgh, Apollo Press 1776: Numb. 187. Thursday, July 29, 1756
  2. Synonym of Mary, mother of Jesus, in Latin, Spanish, etc. contexts.
    Synonyms:
    Mary, mother of Jesus, in Latin, Spanish
  3. A surname originating as a matronymic.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Maria

Maria

  1. A Dravidian language spoken in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh provinces in India.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Maria

Maria

  1. A Papuan language spoken in Papua New Guinea.

Synonyms of maria

Origin of maria

Borrowed from Latin Maria, borrowed from Koine Greek Μᾰρῐ́ᾱ (Mărĭ́ā), borrowed from Aramaic מרים, borrowed from Biblical Hebrew מִרְיָם (miryɔm). Doublet of Mary, Marie, and Miriam.

Words formed from maria

Phrases with maria

Words that rhyme with maria

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about maria

What does maria mean?
Maria means a female given name from Hebrew.
What is maria the plural of?
Maria is the plural of mare.
What part of speech is maria?
Maria is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce maria?
Maria is pronounced /ˈmɑɹ.i.ə/ (US).

Words near maria in the dictionary

  1. Marholm
  2. Mari
  3. mari complaisant
  4. Mari El
  5. Mari Lwyd
  6. maria
  7. Maria Aurora
  8. Maria Clara
  9. Maria Clara gown
  10. Maria Clara gowns
  11. Maria Island

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maria (page history and authors); Maria (page history and authors); mare (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-maria.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Maria.wav.

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