Word.ws English Dictionary

maya

/ˈmaɪə//maɪ.ə/

maya noun: magic; supernatural power as held by the gods.

Noun (1)

maya (uncountable)

  1. (Hindu mythology) Magic; supernatural power as held by the gods.
  2. (Hinduism) The power by which the universe is made to appear; the illusion of the phenomenal world, as opposed to its true or spiritual reality.
    • Shankara prescribed meditative reflection, through which each individual could pierce the veil of maya and come to recognize the identity between his or her essence and the universal spirit.2016, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, published 2017, page 58

Noun (2) capitalized: Maya

Maya (plural Mayas or Maya)

  1. a flourishing Mesoamerican civilization that existed in and around Guatemala from the 3rd century to the 9th century.
  2. various Mesoamerican peoples that continued in competing civilizations from the 10th century onward until conquered by Spain
  3. various Mesoamerican peoples living in the Spanish Empire, and now parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras
  4. a variety of Mesoamerican peoples with farming from around 1000 BC onward, who developed a large civilization from the 3rd century onward

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Maya

Maya

  1. The Yucatec Maya language.
  2. Quiché.
  3. Mam.
  4. Tzotzil.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Maya

Maya (plural Mayas)

  1. A female given name
    • When her little friends asked her what her name was, her father replied that it was Conchita - his diminutive for Maria de la Concepción. "Con-what?" they would ask again, aware, apparently, that con in French is a fool, an idiot. So her parents started calling her Maria, which from the little...1988, Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, Picasso, Creator and Destroyer, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 240
    1. A female given name from Hebrew, of modern usage, variant of Maria, equivalent to English Mary
    2. A female given name from Latin, variant of Maia, equivalent to English May
    3. A female given name from Greek

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Maya

Maya

  1. In Sanskrit, illusion and the power that creates it; God's physical and metaphysical creation (literally, "not this").
  2. A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.
    • Eventually, Pran and Savita decided by correspondence on Maya. Its two simple syllables meant, among other things: the goddess Lakshmi, illusion, fascination, art, the goddess Durga, kindness, and the name of the mother of Buddha. It also meant: ignorance, delusion, fraud, guile, and hypocrisy; but...1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Phoenix House, →ISBN, page 891

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Maya

Maya

  1. The mother of Gautama Buddha.

maya meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

maya in Hindi

maya, the veil on reality
माया māyā
maya, divine power
माया māyā

maya in Tamil

மாயா

maya in Marathi

maya, the veil on reality
माया māyā
maya; divine power
माया māyā

maya in Urdu

مایا
More languagesFewer languages
maya in Bengali
মায়া maẏa
maya in Telugu
మాయా, మాయ
maya in Malayalam
മായ māya
maya in Kannada
ಮಾಯಾ, ಮಾಯೆ, ಮಾಯ
maya in Punjabi
ਮਾਇਆ māiā
maya in Gujarati
અવિદ્યા avidyā, માયા māyā
maya in Odia
ମାଯ଼ା
maya in Nepali
माया

Forms of maya

Noun
pluralMayas
pluralMaya
Proper noun
pluralMayas

Origin of maya

Borrowed from Sanskrit माया (māyā).

Borrowed from Spanish maya, from Yucatec Maya mayab (“flat”) or Yucatec Maya maaya, a self-designation of the northern Maya for themselves, in the form maya’ found in compounds and phrases e.g. maya’ wíinik (“Maya man”).

* From Maria, ultimately from Hebrew, * From Maia, from Latin, from Ancient Greek Μαῖα (Maîa)

Words formed from maya

Phrases with maya

Words that rhyme with maya

20 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about maya

What does maya mean?
Maya means magic; supernatural power as held by the gods.
What is maya in Hindi?
Maya in Hindi is माया (māyā). See Maya meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is maya?
Maya can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce maya?
Maya is pronounced /ˈmaɪə/.
What is the plural of maya?
The plural of maya is Mayas.

Words near maya in the dictionary

  1. May-Thurner syndrome
  2. May-to-December
  3. May-White syndrome
  4. may-woon
  5. may-woons
  6. maya
  7. Maya arch
  8. Maya arches
  9. maya bird
  10. Maya blue
  11. Maya blues

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maya (page history and authors); Maya (page history and authors); माया (Hindi) (page history and authors); maya (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); माया (Marathi) (page history and authors); maya (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); মায়া (Bengali) (page history and authors); maya (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); മായ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); maya (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ਮਾਇਆ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); અવિદ્યા (Gujarati) (page history and authors); maya (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); maya (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-Maya.wav.

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