marijuana

noun

mar·​i·​jua·​na ˌmer-ə-ˈwä-nə 

ˌma-rə-

also -ˈhwä-

variants or less commonly marihuana

1

: the psychoactive dried resinous flower buds and leaves of the female hemp or cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa or C. indica) that contain high levels of THC and are smoked, vaped, or ingested (as in baked goods) especially for their intoxicating effect : cannabis

Note: Several substances (such as cannabidiol) lacking psychoactive properties are extracted from the flower buds of marijuana and are used medicinally.

compare bhang, hashish see also medical marijuana

2

: hemp sense 1a, cannabis sense 1

Examples of marijuana in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Rudofsky then quizzed Givens about Toney's business when he was actively engaged in drug trafficking -- most of which involved marijuana but by 2022 also involved multiple pounds of methamphetamine and cocaine as well as fentanyl. —Arkansas Online, 24 Feb. 2026

Texas country singer Charley Crockett canceled his Canadian tour after he was barred from entering the country due to a 2016 marijuana conviction. —Uwa Ede-Osifo, Dallas Morning News, 23 Feb. 2026

Federal agents cuffed Fiseku, who was wanted for a separate case in February 2025, when he was caught carrying marijuana, cocaine and a fake ID, according to Queens DA Melinda Katz’s office. —Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 19 Feb. 2026

In the pile, police also found a laundry bag containing six pounds of marijuana as well as $53,500 in cash and psilocybin mushrooms. —Frederick Sutton Sinclair, CBS News, 19 Feb. 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Mexican Spanish mariguana, marihuana, of uncertain origin

Note: The etymology of Mexican Spanish mariguana, marihuana remains elusive despite much hypothesizing. The first known attestation of the word is in a pharmacopoeia compiled by the newly founded Mexican pharmaceutical academy (Farmacopea mexicana formada y publicada por la Academia Farmacéutica de la Capital de la República, México, 1846); in the text mariguana is a cross-reference to Rosa María, defined as "cáñamo del pais.—Canavis indicus. Hojas. Narcótico" ("country hemp.—Canavis [i.e., Cannabis] indicus. Leaves. Narcotic") (p. 41). The word reappears in the Lecciones de farmacología (Guadalajara, 1853) by Leonardo Oliva (1814-72), chair of pharmacology at the University of Guadalajara. Oliva alludes to the consumption of the plant ("Las hojas fumadas como lo hacen los Hotentotes segun Sparrman i como tambíen lo hacen algunos mejicanos, producen embriaguez é ilusiones sin acarrear la irritacion gastrica, ni otros efectos que ocasionan los alcoholicos …" – "The leaves when smoked, as the Hottentots do according to Sparrman and as certain Mexicans do, produce intoxication and illusions without resulting in the gastric irritation and other side-effects caused by alcoholic drinks …"). Oliva may also have been the first writer to speculate on the origin of the word: "Marihuana…Planta … cuyo nombre acaso está formado de la voz Mari significando Maria i la palabra Huana significando Rosa, ignoro á que idioma pertenece: será planta que como otras muchas pasó á Mejico del Asia antes de la conquista, como parece demostrarlo en cierto modo su nombre americanizado?" ("Marihuana …A plant … whose name is perhaps formed from the word Mari, meaning Maria, and the word Huana, meaning Rosa, from which language I don't know: may it be a plant that like many others passed from Asia to Mexico before the Conquest, which in some way is demonstrated by its Americanized name?") (tomo 1, pp. 200-02). Folk practices relating to marijuana, attributed to the Indigenous Mexicans around San Juan del Río, Querétaro, are described by José María Villa, a friend and correspondent of the Mexican author and politician Guillermo Prieto, through quotes in Prieto's Viajes de orden suprema (México, 1857), an account of travels around Mexico (pp. 428-29). (A paraphrase of this passage in "Wild Tribes of Mexico," a chapter of Hubert Howe Bancroft's The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 1 [New York, 1874/75], p. 633, contains probably the first incidence of mariguana in English.) The word was also familiar to the Norwegian traveler Carl Lumholtz, who visited Mexico in the 1890's and noted it in his book Unknown Mexico (vol. 2, New York: 1902): "A form of common hemp called mariguana or rosa maria (Cannabis sativa) sometimes takes the place of hikuli [a Huichol name for the peyote cactus]. The leaves of this injurious narcotic are smoked throughout Mexico, but mostly by criminals and the depraved" (p. 125). Note that the form marijuana is not recorded in Spanish before its use in English in the early twentieth century, so that the hypothesis that the origin of all the forms is a contraction of the compound name María Juana is not supported—in the first 60-70 years of the word's presence in print in Spanish the only attested spellings are mariguana and marihuana. For this observation and other theories about the word, see Isaac Campos, Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs (University of North Carolina Press, 2012), pp. 67-77.

First Known Use

1874, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing marijuana

• anti-marijuana
• medical marijuana

Rhymes for marijuana

• avifauna
• hinayana
• macrofauna
• mahayana
• majorana
• marianna
• marihuana
• microfauna
• ana
• bwana
• dhyana
• donna

Kids Definition

marijuana

noun

mar·​i·​jua·​na

variants also marihuana

ˌmar-ə-ˈwän-ə 

also -ˈhwän-

: any of various preparations of the dried leaves and flowering tops of the female hemp plant that are used as a drug usually illegally especially by smoking

Medical Definition

marijuana

noun

mar·​i·​jua·​na

variants also marihuana

ˌmar-ə-ˈwän-ə also -ˈhwän-

1

: the psychoactive dried resinous flower buds and leaves of the female hemp or cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa or C. indica) that contain high levels of THC and are smoked, vaped, or ingested (as in baked goods) especially for their intoxicating effect : cannabis

Note: Several substances (as cannabidiol) lacking psychoactive properties are extracted from the flower buds of marijuana and are used medicinally.

compare bhang, hashish see also medical marijuana

2

: hemp sense 1, cannabis sense 1