Definition of mecca
: a place regarded as a center for a specified group, activity, or interest
- a mecca for shoppers
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Examples of mecca in a Sentence
The valley is a mecca for wine lovers.
The town has become a mecca for tourists.
Recent Examples of mecca from the Web
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Art museums, fairs, galleries and studios have helped build Miami into a cultural mecca.
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San Diego’s legal pot stores could run short of recreational marijuana this summer when the seasonal rise in tourism sends the demand for cannabis soaring in a city that’s emerged as a mecca for the sale of weed.
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Word of Kith as a new school sneaker mecca soon spread—and then spread some more—to the point that the company now has outposts in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.
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Clermont’s reputation as a sports mecca, earned through the events staged by Sommer, helped the city land the world-class National Training Center, where numerous Olympic-caliber athletes train.
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PyeongChang has dropped $13 billion so far on the 2018 Winter Games, which open tonight, with the hope of spinning itself into an Asian winter sports mecca for years to come.
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Despite its beefy reputation, Texas has emerged as a pie mecca of sorts.
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Karolyi Ranch, a 2,000-acre compound about 70 miles north of Houston, wasn't just a gymnastics mecca bearing the coaches' names.
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For less than the price of renting out their Washington, D.C., townhouse for a year, they are ensconced in a five-bedroom villa overlooking the Pacific in Nosara, a surfing and yoga mecca.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mecca.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The Figurative Use of Mecca
Mecca is one of a number of place names which have taken on figurative meanings over time. This city in Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Muhammad and the site which Muslims must attempt to visit on a pilgrimage; from its role as a religious destination Mecca began to be used in the early 19th century (sometimes capitalized, and sometimes not) in a non-religious sense. Other locations (some of which are fictional) that have taken on this kind of extended meaning are Eden, Camelot, and Wall Street.
Origin and Etymology of mecca
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a destination of pilgrims in the Islamic world
mecca Synonyms
Synonyms
axis, base, capital, center, central, core, cynosure, epicenter, eye, focus, ground zero, heart, hub, locus, navel, nerve center, nucleus, seat;
Related Words
happy hunting ground, hive, hotbed, hot spot, playground, playland;
attraction, lodestone (also loadstone), magnet, polestar;
Phrases
where it's at;
MECCA Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of mecca for English Language Learners
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Mecca : a city in Saudi Arabia that was the birthplace of Muhammad and is the holiest city of Islam
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: a place that attracts many people
Learn More about mecca
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See words that rhyme with mecca Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for mecca Britannica English: Translation of mecca for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about mecca
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