[syn: Maya, Mayan, Mayan language]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Maya \Ma"ya\ (m[aum]"y[aum]), n.
1. (Hindu Philos.) The name (in Vedantic philosphy) for the
doctrine of the unreality of matter, called, in English,
idealism; hence, nothingness; vanity; illusion.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Hindu Philos.) the Hindu goddess personifying the power
that creates phenomena. --[RHUD]
[PJC]
3. (Hindu Philos.) the power to produce illusions. --[RHUD]
[PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
Maya
n 1: a member of an American Indian people of Yucatan and Belize
and Guatemala who had a culture (which reached its peak
between AD 300 and 900) characterized by outstanding
architecture and pottery and astronomy; "Mayans had a
system of writing and an accurate calendar" [syn: Mayan,
Maya]
2: a family of American Indian languages spoken by Maya [syn:
Maya, Mayan, Mayan language]