mama

1 of 3

noun (1)

ma·​ma ˈmä-mə 

chiefly British mə-ˈmä

variants or less commonly mamma or momma

1

: mother

2

slang : wife, woman

mamma

2 of 3

noun (2)

mam·​ma ˈma-mə 

plural mammae ˈma-ˌmē 

-ˌmī

: a mammary gland and its accessory parts

mamma

3 of 3

noun (3)

mam·​ma

less common spelling of mama

1

: mother

2

slang : wife, woman

Synonyms of mama

Noun (1)

• mom
• mother
• mommy

Examples of mama in a Sentence

Noun (1)

I'm not your mama—you'll have to clean up after yourself.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

My mama strains both the yogurt and the cucumber before mixing everything together. —Georgina Hayden, Bon Appetit Magazine, 15 June 2026

After making off with a substantial stack of cash from her job to fund a new life with boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin), she gets waylaid by a rainstorm and stops to spend the night at the Bates Motel, run by awkward mama’s boy Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). —Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 9 June 2026

Noun

Chase being involved for who knows what reason; attempts from Dakota to steal focus from his baby mamma, Taylor; and an out-of-place prominence on DadTok in general. —Mckinley Franklin, HollywoodReporter, 12 Mar. 2026

Momma had a smooth labor and delivery and both mamma and baby are doing great! —Kayla Grant, People.com, 10 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

baby talk

Noun (2)

borrowed from New Latin, going back to Latin, "breast, udder, mother," nursery word with cognate or parallel formations in other Indo-European languages, as Old Irish muimme "nurse, foster mother," Welsh mam "mother," Russian máma, Lithuanian mamà, momà, Greek mámmē "mother, grandmother," Armenian mam "grandmother," Sanskrit māmaḥ "uncle"

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1579, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing mama

• mama's boy
• sugar mama

Rhymes for mama

• brahma
• chama
• comma
• dama
• drama
• gama
• lama
• llama
• mamma
• momma
• rama
• sama

Kids Definition

mama

noun

ma·​ma

variants also mamma or momma

ˈmäm-ə

: mother entry 1 sense 1a