mayas

Noun

WordNet 3.0

Noun (1)

  1. an ethnic minority speaking Mayan languages and living in Yucatan and adjacent areas
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Maya \Ma"ya\ (m[aum]"y[.a]), prop. n.; pl. Maya or Mayas.

1.the Indian people occupying the area of Veracruz, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan, together with a part of Guatemala and a part of Salvador. The Maya peoples are dark, short, and brachycephalic, and at the time of the discovery had attained a higher grade of culture than any other American people. They cultivated a variety of crops, were expert in the manufacture and dyeing of cotton fabrics, used cacao as a medium of exchange, and were workers of gold, silver, and copper. Their architecture comprised elaborately carved temples and palaces, and they possessed a superior calendar, and a developed system of hieroglyphic writing, with records said to go back to about 700 a. d. [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]

2.the language of the Mayas. [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]

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