Word.ws English Dictionary

matamata

matamata noun: a side-necked turtle of species Chelus fimbriata, whose shell resembles a dead leaf.

matamata: a side-necked turtle of species Chelus fimbriata, whose shell resembles a dead leaf
Image: J. Patrick Fischer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

matamata (plural matamatas)

  1. A side-necked turtle of species Chelus fimbriata, whose shell resembles a dead leaf.

Proper noun capitalized: Matamata

Matamata

  1. A town in Waikato, North Island, New Zealand.

Forms of matamata

pluralmatamatas
alternative formmata mata
alternative formmatamata turtle
alternative formmata mata turtle

Origin of matamata

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese matamatá, from Nheengatu and Old Tupi matamatá.

Borrowed from Māori.

Phrases with matamata

Questions about matamata

What does matamata mean?
Matamata means a side-necked turtle of species Chelus fimbriata, whose shell resembles a dead leaf.
What part of speech is matamata?
Matamata can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of matamata?
The plural of matamata is matamatas.

Words near matamata in the dictionary

  1. Matallana
  2. Matalom
  3. Mataloto
  4. Matalucci
  5. Matam
  6. matamata
  7. matamata turtle
  8. matamata turtles
  9. matamatam
  10. matamatams
  11. matamatas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: matamata (page history and authors); Matamata (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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Cite this entry: “matamata.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/matamata. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.