lama
/ˈlɑː.mə/noun
lama is spelled L-A-M-A: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “lama vs llama” about 90 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, lama means “A master of Tibetan Buddhism” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lama is lamas.
How many letters and syllables are in lama?
| Letters | 4: L-A-M-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is lama?
Lama appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce lama?
- /ˈlɑː.mə/
Lama has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-llama.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with lama
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: llama (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: llama.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with lama?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as lama.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: alma, mala, amla, laam.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of lama
- lamas plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lama mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A master of Tibetan Buddhism.
- 2
Alternative form of llama.
- 3
obsoletelamé (fabric with silver or gold threads woven in)
phrase
- 1
Initialism of leaving/left against medical advice.
noun
- 1
Initialism of long-acting muscarinic antagonist.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lama in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense master of Tibetan Buddhism:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does lama come from?
Borrowed from Tibetan བླ་མ (bla ma).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).