mamá

/[maˈma]/ noun

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#866

in Spanish word usage

Misspellings

5

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

mamá is aSpanishnoun. It means: Mujer con quien alguien tiene una relación filial, especialmente si fue engendrado por ella. Pronounced [maˈma]. It ranks #866 in Spanish word frequency. Often confused with mm and más.

Key facts for mamá
PropertyValue
Headwordmamá
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[maˈma]
Letters4
Frequency rank#866
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of mamá in Spanish word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for mamá is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [maˈma]. Corpus data places it at rank #866 in overall Spanish word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for mamá, with forms such as "ammá", "mammá", and "maám". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "mm", "más", "mar", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Spanish form is mamá, spelled M-A-M-Á, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mujer con quien alguien tiene una relación filial, especialmente si fue engendrado por ella.
  2. 2
    Persona o animal del sexo femenino que ha concebido o tenido uno o más hijos.
  3. 3
    Fórmula de cariño (vocativo) para dirigirse a una niña pequeña.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ammá,mammá,maám,mmamá,mmaá

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for mamá

Misspelling Variants of "mamá"

ammá4mammá5maám4mmamá5mmaá4
Misspelling Variants of "mamá"

Frequency rank: #866 in Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mamá"?
"mamá" is spelled M-A-M-Á. The IPA pronunciation is [maˈma].
What does "mamá" mean?
As a noun, "mamá" means: Mujer con quien alguien tiene una relación filial, especialmente si fue engendrado por ella.
What words are commonly confused with "mamá"?
"mamá" is commonly confused with "mm", "más", "mar". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "mamá"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mamá" is [maˈma]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mamá" come from?
"mamá" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby Spanish words

Other entries that begin with the letter M in our Spanish index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.